With the recent escalation of racism, in particular anti-Asian Racism, the VNCS has formed a Human Rights Committee (HR Committee) to focus our efforts to counter this disturbing trend. Web site entries related to Human Rights will be tagged here.
In response to the alarming rise in anti-Asian racism, the Act2EndRacism Network has produced five short videos, seeking to counter disinformation and misinformation that has fuelled anti-Asian sentiment. The goal of these videos is to have you reflect on your experiences, engage in conversations, and together find ways to address anti-Asian racism, hate and intolerance. Last month we posted the first video on Microaggression. Here is the second video in the series, The Model Minority Myth.
We at the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society are deeply troubled by recent reports across the country and from our neighbours to the south about the rise in anti-Asian racism.
As a society, we must stand against racism of any type. As we have seen again and again, unchecked racism is a blight on society. It harms individuals. It harms communities. It harms the very fabric of our nation.
Here in Canada, we have seen the consequences of anti-Asian racism in our history. In the Second World War, Canadians of Japanese heritage living on the West Coast were sent to internment camps and stripped of their property – homes, fishing boats, businesses. Members of Victoria’s Japanese community lived through these times, and many more had parents who were impacted.
Sharing our culture is woven into the very fabric of the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society, and we hope that one day we can see an end to anti-Asian and all forms of racism. We encourage everyone – Asian and non-Asian – to take part in rallies taking place to voice concerns about racism.
There are useful online resources with tools to confront racism below. They also provide tools to help report hate crimes, something that is critical if authorities and the community are to get a true understanding of the extent of these incidents.
National Association of Japanese Canadians Confronting and Reporting Racism (http://najc.ca/confronting-and-reporting-racism-the-najc/)
Elimin8hate (https://www.elimin8hate.org/)
B.C. Government anti-racism resources (https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/multiculturalism-anti-racism/anti-racism)