Anti-Asian Racism up 700% in Canada
Actual stories of hate crimes on the rise
On A Bus
I was on the bus in Vancouver when a man in his 40s spewed out racial slurs to a young Asian female university student. She was sitting alone in her seat, looking at her iPhone without engaging in any form with this individual. He came up at her from behind her seat. The verbal attack was unprovoked and unexpected.
A certain woman, not mentioning who… tore a strip off him up one side and down the other full of colourful words as he exited the bus. She waited for him as he neared the exit. He may think twice next time.
On a Subway
Another young Asian female was on a subway sitting alone looking at her iPhone. She had placed her backpack on the seat next to her to keep a social distance when a 40-something man approached the seat. The young woman politely said that she felt uncomfortable considering the pandemic. He did not acknowledge her; he did not respond. He sat next to her on top of her belongings.
Were these actions rude and careless? Absolutely, but not necessarily racist. It was what followed afterward.
Passengers sitting near this young female started berating her, telling her she was overreacting, to get off the train if she didn’t like it, some said that “This Covid thing is a hoax”, and another woman said that “she shouldn’t complain since it came from China”.
Not one person spoke up for her. She was verbally attacked from all around while trapped in her seat next to a smug, over-entitled lump who enjoyed his newfound fandom. Oh, how large and in-charge he must have felt.
In a Coffee Shop
Many years ago I sat in a cafe in a new city with a new friend. While having a seemingly pleasant conversation, she stops dead in her words to spit out venomous, racist hatred about a group of Asian tourists who walked past the window. I was mortified. I was young and didn’t quite know how to handle such a shocking situation. I cut our date short and cut all ties with her.
The Vancouver Police Department has stated that anti-Asian hate crimes have increased by 717 percent from 2019 to 2020. Statistics show the increase in harassment with Chinese, Korean, and South Asian individuals to be the top three targeted.
Ottawa has also reported that South Asian hate crimes are up by 600 percent from 2019 to 2020.
75-Year-Old Woman Attacks Her Attacker
Just recently, as many of us have heard, an 84-year-old Asian man is attacked by a 39-year-old man in San Francisco. Then moments later he punches a 75-year-old Asian woman in the face. She beats her attacker with a stick. Good for her.
It has become an exceedingly growing concern for all people of Asian descent, regardless of age or gender. I have friends and colleagues that are on edge, nervous to go out alone. This has been compounded by the horrific Atlanta Spa mass shooting of predominantly Asian women.
These days, sadly, the more vulnerable population is afraid to leave their homes, young women are afraid to be out at night. Why wouldn’t they be? We have countless stories of unprovoked attacks which have rapidly increased following the pandemic.
Health Ramifications
Psychological distress, physical pain, and a higher rate of mortality are some ramifications of racial discrimination. Lily Bailey of Psychology Today tells us that anti-Asian racism has a ‘secondary contagion’, and that Asians are “scapegoated, verbally attacked with racial slurs, coughed at, spat on, and physically assaulted”.
Jill Cowan of the New York Times just wrote an article in which an associate professor of Asian-American studies; Lok Siu, explains that discrimination has tended to peak in times of national crisis. She further reiterates this to the anti-Asian hate during WWII, the Cold War, and the anti-Muslim surge following September 11, 2001.
Cult Like Behaviour?
Of course, having a former leader using phrases such as “Wuhan Virus” and “Chyyyna Flu” has only further encouraged hate by those who have suppressed their toxic beliefs because of social expectations. Well, those social expectations seem to have withered away and racial inequality has taken us back decades.
When it Hits Home
A 4-year-old child is running around, as 4-year-old children do in a playground when another boy told him that his parents thought his mother “eats too much soya sauce”. Later that night at dinner the child asks his parents why little ‘Johnny’ said that mom “eats too much soya sauce”. That’s when the conversations around racism began. As a mother, this was a heartbreaking and heart-wrenching thing to hear from her son, my son.
He’s now 22 and thriving, handsome and successful. However, it wasn’t without hearing ‘innocent’ racist jokes throughout many years. My daughter as well would hear jokes aimed at the Asian population by those forgetting that she too is Asian, as is her father and half her family. She learned to brush it off to ignorance and thoughtlessness. She is now 18, thriving and beautiful.
The statistics of hate crimes can never convey the fear, the shame, and indignation that this type of violence inflicts within the general population.
We can learn from Black Lives Matter, which is perhaps the largest movement within the history of the United States. We must learn to stand together to stop the hate. We need to stand up and defend those who can’t do it for themselves. I’m angry. We are better than this. I know we are.
