A pregnant Burnaby woman is urging people to show more support after she says she was accosted by racist “bullies” while waiting in line to enter a local store.
Jade, who doesn’t want her last name used, wrote me to discuss an incident that happened while waiting to enter a store on Hastings in Burnaby Heights.
Several people were waiting in line because the store in question has a capacity limit due to COVID-19 restrictions. A white couple stood behind her. When a business owner politely asked people to not block his doorway, the couple asked Jade – who is Asian – to move.
Jade responded that she didn’t want to get too close to the person in front of her.
“I thought that was the end of the story,” Jade said. “Lost in my thoughts, I vaguely heard the phrases ‘don't you look at me’ and mutterings about being ‘inbred,’ but it was a few minutes before I realized that the couple was talking about me. Incredulous, I glanced over at the couple, and the man immediately swore at me to turn around and stop listening to their private conversation. He then had the gall to stand in front of his wife as though he were protecting her from me, and swore at me to stop talking to his wife.”
Jade said the couple subjected her to more abuse and called them racist “bullies” who went ballistic at someone not following their orders.
“It's been a long time since I've experienced a racist incident,” said Jade, adding that she felt isolated as others heard the comments but who did nothing. “What support can I rely on you for the next time I experience or witness a racist incident in Burnaby Heights?”
Back in 2021, a major American news outlet labelled Metro Vancouver "the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Capital of North America."
Bloomberg cited a variety of statistics to back up the claim, including that anti-Asian hate crime in the region has spiked over the last year and a survey that says one out of two B.C. residents of Asian descent have experienced a hate incident in the last year.
"Last year, more anti-Asian hate crimes were reported to police in Vancouver, a city of 700,000 people, than in the top 10 most populous U.S. cities combined," wrote journalist Natalie Obiko Pearson.
That trend doesn’t seem to have slowed down at all.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
