By Dominic Taylor-
Asian communities in Canada have been subjected to physical assaults and racist name-calling, since the novel coronavirus pandemic began.
A survey conducted by the Angus Reid Institute confirmed the problem to be widespread.
In an online survey conducted between June 15 and 18, researchers at the Angus Reid Institute and University of Alberta asked 516 Canadians of Chinese ethnicity about their experience with racism during COVID-19 The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by the Institute and university.
The survey’s methodology says for comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size carries a margin of error of +/- 4.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are attributed to rounding.
Shachi Kurl, executive director at the Angus Reid Institute, said it was important to establish solid data on the incidents of harassment, violence and threats reported by people of Chinese and East Asian descent in Canada during the pandemic.
“You understand that it’s happening, but you don’t have a sense of how much it’s happening,” she said.
“We now know and understand just how widespread it’s been. And we also have a sense of what the impact has been on the psyche of these members of our community.”
Findings
Thirty per cent said they have been frequently exposed to racist graffiti or social media posts ever since the pandemic began in March.
Close to 30 per cent said they have often been made to feel as if they are a threat to the health of other people.
People reported making changes to their everyday lives in response to the increased discrimination, with six in 10 people indicating they have tweaked their daily routines to avoid any potentially unpleasant encounters.
Over 50% of the respondents also worried that Asian children will face bullying linked to the coronavirus pandemic once schools resume.
Kurl said researchers wanted to find out how often incidents of racism, harassment or intimidation are happening, and how many people are experiencing them.
“There’s two narratives, without data, you don’t know which narrative is correct,” she explained.
“One narrative says, well, these are isolated incidents. But these data would show us that these incidents are not so isolated and that they are affecting a significant number of people of Chinese ethnicity. So that’s the big takeaway.”
Canadians who identify as ethnically Chinese are around 1.7 million, or five per cent of Canada’s population, according to Statistics Canada data cited in the survey.
“It’s a stressful time for all of us in this country,” Kurl said.
“And then for a significant cohort, a major part of our community, they’re also worried about something else, a different kind of virus, and that virus is racism, and they’re on the frontlines experiencing it and also worried about what’s going to happen in terms of how this plays out in the future.”
Abuse
Some people reported physical abuse as well, with eight per cent saying they have been attacked or harmed physically. One survey respondent reported being spat on by a cyclist.
These numbers are just among those who reported frequent experiences.
The survey notes that when the responses of those who have ever experienced things like this over the past three months are taken into account, the results show an even wider spread problem with 64 per cent saying they faced some level of disrespect during the pandemic.
One in four said they were treated with less respect because of their ethnicity. One person from the survey recalled being told to “go back to where you came from” after asking someone at the grocery store to respect social distancing.
Another told researchers they don’t read comments or engage in talks online “because I receive nasty personal messages and harassment if I mention being Chinese Canadian, even though I don’t speak the language.”
Pandemic
The novel coronavirus which began in Wuhan, China eventually spread across the globe, leading to the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic in March.
At the end of January, as the country dealt with its first case of COVID-19, Canada’s chief medical officer felt compelled to address the “growing number of reports of #racism and stigmatising comments on social media directed to people of Chinese and Asian descent.”
“We need to learn from our experience with #SARS, where South East Asians faced significant #racism and #discrimination,” Tam wrote in a Jan. 29 tweet.
Ironically, only in April 2020, Chinese authorities in the southern city of Guangzhou, Guangdong province, which has China’s largest African community, began a campaign to forcibly test Africans for the coronavirus, and ordered them to self-isolate or to quarantine in designated hotels.
Landlords then evicted African residents, forcing many to sleep on the street, and hotels, shops, and restaurants refused African customers. Other foreign groups have generally not been subjected to similar treatment.
Chinese Virus
U.S. President Donald Trump referred to the novel coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” on more than one occasion, defending himself by claiming it’s “not racist at all.”
The president of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, John C. Yang, said in March that Trump’s comments harkened back to the late 1800s, when Chinese Americans were deemed the “yellow peril,” despite living in the U.S. for years.
And this past weekend, at his first campaign rally in months in Tulsa, Okla., Trump referred to the virus as the “kung flu.”
Media Negative Effect
In response to questions about North American media coverage of the corona virus outbreak and its impact on the perception of Canadians on people of Chinese ethnicity, two-thirds of respondents said they felt media coverage had an overall negative effect.
Overall, many respondents indicated a strong sense of belonging within Canada while also taking pride in their own ethnicity.
An overwhelming majority of those surveyed (88 per cent) said they love Canada and what it stands for and that being Canadian is an important part of their identity. A similar majority also said their Chinese ethnicity is a significant part of their identity.
When asked if others view them as Canadian as well, only 13 per cent indicated they think others always view them as Canadian, and one in four said they feel like outsiders in Canada.
“In Canada, we have this notion that we are this endlessly accepting, tolerant, enthusiastically multicultural country,” Kurl said.
“I would say that these numbers underscore that we have some work to be doing.”
Half of them indicated being called names or insults as a direct consequence of the outbreak, while 43 per cent said they have faced threats or intimidation.
“Since March 2020, I have been repeatedly yelled at on the sidewalk in my own neighbourhood,” said one person who took part in the survey, according to the Angus Reid Institute.
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