Metro groups unite against coronavirus-related racism

Community leaders say a recent rise in crimes against Asian people has them sharing experiences and resources to denounce racism linked to COVID-19.

Some individuals are gathering grassroots information that suggests an under-reporting of racist incidents, even as official numbers rise.

Vancouver police said Friday it is investigating a hate crime case that happened on April 2 at the Chinese Cultural Centre in Chinatown. Two men were captured on camera using markers to write hateful and intimidating messages in large, scrawling text on windows and windowsills, including slurs against and calling for the death of Chinese people.

Police have seen an “increase in reports of anti-asian, hate-motivated incidents during the COVID -19 pandemic,” said Const. Tania Visintin.

She said 15 hate crimes were reported to Vancouver police in April, and 11 of those had an anti-asian element. So far, in 2020, there have been 20 anti-asian hate crimes reported to police, compared to a total of 12 in 2019.

The assault of a 92-year-old man last week, a report at a downtown drugstore and now the graffiti at the cultural centre have become public, but there are other incidents, said Chak Au, a Richmond city councillor.

He helped to launch Stop Racism Alliance late last year, before COVID-19, because he said the threshold for what is considered a hate crime “is quite high.”

“There needs to be other channels for dealing with actions that are nonetheless very damaging,” he said. “I would like to see more effort by government officials to make people understand that the (COVID-19) virus is not related to any one cultural or ethnic group.”

“We are finding ourselves connecting various groups, from non-profits and individuals to grassroots to established ones to language groups, and trying to bring them together,” said Kevin Huang of the Hua Foundation.

Ellen Kim of Vancouver started circulating an online form last week to gather information about Covid-19-related racism incidents. So far, there have been more than 70 responses, including from other cities in Canada, said Kim. “There is huge range of verbal harassment. A lot of people (report) being coughed at and spat at. There has been unwanted physical contact and vandalism.”

Doris Chow, who helped Kim, said they started the form after feeling there was an increase in the number and intensity of incidents, including ones directed at them.

One, in particular, left her feeling unsure about how or if to report it. “We realized there is a gap in some mechanism to report these kinds of things that are a bit lower barrier.”

Being able to measure and report what is going on is a first step in knowing what kinds of educational campaigns or bystander training to combat racism could be most effective, said Kim.