Note: Jesse Chan identifies as queer and goes by they/them pronouns.
On Friday, July 7, while walking in South Burnaby, Jesse Chan noticed some disturbing graffiti near a bus stop. A bench near a bus stop on Nelson and Carson intersection had been defaced with racist comments including words such as N*** and Ch*** sprayed on it along with a swastika.
“It is so heartbreaking,” Chan told.the NOW. “I almost wanted to cry."
“The word Ch*** [was written] on a bus stop that had a photo of an Asian real estate agent and a swastika on their face, and I was so shocked that this is literally right across the street from me.”
Seeing the blatant display of racism, they said, all they could think was about the new neighbours, who are of Vietnamese descent, and their one-year-old baby. Why would why anyone do this?
Many people of colour live in the neighbourhood, Chan said, making the incident even more “concerning.”
“[This] scares me,” they said. “Not only is it heartbreaking to see, but I have also experienced physical and verbal violence relating to my race, gender and sexuality. So when I see those words, I don’t just see them as bad words. I see them as a threat to my safety and I feel like like when I see words like that, I have flashbacks about being attacked on the street.”
“It’s almost like I’m reliving that trauma… just by seeing those words,” they said.
Chan, who is of Chinese descent and has lived in Burnaby’s Marine Drive area their whole life, said the amount of racism in the neighbourhood has risen through the roof in the last few years — with Nazi graffiti defacing properties in many places.
But this particular targeting felt more personal. That it was so close to home prompted Chan to do something about it. “I go to that bus stop almost every single day and imagine if I have to look at that [everyday]. So do all my neighbours, who are all mostly people of colour.”
After calling the city after hours to report the vandalism, Chan picked up some sticker paper lying around for label-making, and began carving little hearts out of it.
They painted the hearts red and wrote positive anti-hate messages on them.
Around 10 p.m., they went out and covered the hateful graffiti on the benches with heart-shaped stickers.
The incident has also prompted Chan to start a new initiative called “Red Hearts against Hate” — to spread more positivity.
They are hoping to make heart stickers and hand them out, so others can cover up hateful and racist graffiti with hearts and positivity.
The initiative, still in its early stages, is one Chan hopes will take off.
“I’m hoping to turn this into a [widespread] movement. I don’t want this to just be local.
“I want people to feel like they can do something about racist graffiti. People should know, you just can’t fight hate with hate. Because an eye for an eye just makes the whole world blind."
