Physical Violence Against the Asian in Canada Essay Example

Canada is said to be one of the most diverse and equal countries in the world, but what is happening in Vancouver says otherwise. For centuries, resentment towards Asians has flooded Vancouver like a cup of boiling tea, which is why it began to flood and hurt everyone the second Covid-19 began. Physical violence against the Asian community has increased by 900% in the city of Vancouver since 2020. Evidently, this issue has been going on for much longer than 2020, however it only seemed to increase in the past few years. Ordinarily, the crimes that get reported in the city of Vancouver are racial hate crimes and it needs to come to an end. Canada will never achieve its dream of becoming an equitable society, unless its citizens put their verbal and physical violence towards the Asian community to an end.

Canada isn’t as great of a society as people think it is, hence why an entire group of Asian citizens get verbally harassed in their own residence. It is absolutely revolting, extremely staggering and utterly distressing. How would you feel if you were just minding your own business while working or hanging out with your friends and a random stranger started yelling slurs at you? It would feel extremely terrible, wouldn’t it? The younger majority of Asian-Canadians (18-34 years old) are the ones who experience the most hard hits (41%). Lots of the assaults start by verbal violence and harassment, which escalates to physical violence. When covid just started spreading, Asian citizens were called names like “virus spreaders” and “bat eaters”. Hate speech isn’t only on the streets, moreover it’s evident in social media. Preponderance of hate speech happens online, and it doesn’t get reported frequently. Ms. Alba expresses her point of view on Asian hate speech online by telling the reporter that she saw telegrams where people post hate “memes” of violence against Asians in which the photos show execution of Asian people. “They use slurs, they use memes glorifying violence against Asians, and they sort of make it into a joke where they’ll turn it into a cartoon, but I’ve seen cartoons of Asians being executed by hanging. I’ve seen posts of pictures from the My Lai massacre where American soldiers are stomping on Vietnamese people. And all of that stuff is glorified and pointed at as justified because people say this is a rightful response to the world having to deal with a pandemic that originated in China.” (Ms. Alba). They also post slurs and attack Asians over the internet by making fun of their eyes and “blaming” the virus on the Asian community. The hashtag “Chinese Virus” tweeted by former president Trump spiked the misinformation that led to the hate speech against East Asians online. Hate speech in Vancouver was definitely inspired by the internet, seeing that it’s a huge platform that shapes people's personalities and the way they think. Verbal hate is unquestionably the biggest and most disgusting reason why Canada is not an equal society yet.

The day physical violence gets recognized and dealt with, is the day that Canada will be considered a developing, equal, loving society. Physical violence can range from slapping to getting spat on (all are physical harassment). Those harsh physical harassment techniques were all all used on Asian citizens. Most of the people who got attacked were the visibly older generation. In March an innocent elderly woman named Diep was walking near Columbia and East Hastings, when a hateful woman walked up to her and smacked her across the face angrily. The woman proceeded to scream at Diep telling her to “go back to china” and that she “doesn’t live in Canada”. You would think that this would only happen in the United States, if you were anyone who believes that Canada is equal, nevertheless this is the reality that a lot of Asian citizens go through. On March 13, 2021, an Asian senior with dementia was attacked in a store near Nanaimo Street. The guilty suspect aggressively pushed the elderly man out of the store's door which caused him to fall and bang his head on the cold concrete floor. The suspect proceeded to help the  senior stand up, but he went ahead and fled the crime scene. Why would he ever think attacking an innocent person is okay? Asians under the age of 35 and seniors reported being physically assaulted (42-57%). Trixi Ling, a victim of anti-Asian assault, reported that when she was walking from work a man started saying extremely racist and sexist comments as he began to spit on her. “He started making a number of racist/sexual comments. As I walked directly past him, he spat on my face.” (Trixi Ling). Trixi was tremendously brave for coming forward and sharing her story considering how many incidents like hers go unreported, unnoticed and unsolved. It is truly disturbing how many people walk on the streets of Vancouver doing unspeakable things like attacking elders and spitting on women. Vancouver's physical violence crime rise against Asians, especially seniors, holds Canada back from becoming an equal society.

Verbal attacks, both online and in public, as well as actual violence, are tremendously damaging to our society. Canada can never achieve its goal of becoming an equitable society unless its citizens quit abusing verbal and physical violence against the Asian community. If everyone in Canada uses their minds and stops discriminating against Asians, especially in Vancouver, Canada will be a better society. However, there is still a long way to go until that happens.