People gathered ethier at Victoria Park or online as the Stop Asian Hate Vigil and Rally went underway. A new report which was released by the Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter looked at more than 1,000 cases of racist attacks reported through online platforms like Fight COVID Racism. The event wasn’t as massive as last summer’s Black Life Matter protest, as people were encouraged to watch the rally, via Facebook Live or Zoom.
This comes after a deadly shooting down in the state of Georgia, which saw a man went on a rampage at three different spa’s, killing eight people and of which, six were women of Asian descent. Teigan Elliot and Ayexa Tahir, are two students (Elliot is a Western student, Tahir is a student at McMaster University) who helped organize the rally. Elliot explains why it was important to have a rally in London.
“I saw recently with some of the signs up to ‘China-virus’, there were a lot of people who didn’t see how it was racist, or didn’t really understand that this is the kind of thing that we hear quite regularly,” Elliot said. “It was super important that we had something here both to
Organizers hold signs as the Stop Asian Hate Vigil came to a close
honour victims and support the Asian community in London, but also to make it known that this is an issue and we don’t want to be silent about it really for any longer.”
Ken Pham, who was one of the speakers at the event is also an actor. He believes that one of the ways we learn about Anti-Asian racism is to
hear the stories from Asian people. He reflects back on the Musical “Miss Saigon” and how that rubbed him the wrong way.
“It paints a picture of how people view me, people, who watch that show or musical see that. I think subconsciously, it paints a picture of how Asian people are,” Pham stated. “I encourage more people of colour to write, to produce, to tell their story, to act or just to be leaders in their respect.”
Some final words as the Stop Asian Hate rally has ended. #LdnOnt pic.twitter.com/n92myeKOBv
— XFM News (@XFMNews) March 26, 2021
Elliot also reflects on things that have happened in the past and say’s that they still have their effects strongly today.
A speaker, Hae Eun (Hayley) Lee performed a poet at the rally
“There’s stuff like the Immigration Act and the Japanese internment camps, as the yellow peril propaganda that still hasn’t fully left the minds of Canadians,” Elliot stated. “White supremacy has had its roots, super deep in our history. That’s something that’s really hard to just get rid of even all the time.”
As time passes on, Ayexa Tahir, one of the organizers says that the one thing we can do is educate ourselves.
“Once you get to understand that we all come from the same place here. I think that makes a huge difference,” Tahir stated. “Don’t think that it’s an Asian person’s responsibility to educate you. It’s not it’s your own. You must make those decisions to educate yourself.”
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