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Bridges for Women Society denounces the anti-Asian hate crimes that are sweeping across North America.
The recent murder of six Asian-American women in Atlanta was not an isolated incident but the crest of a tide of racist incidents. The alleged killer in Atlanta clearly targeted workplaces where immigrant women of Asian descent are employed in high numbers in jobs that make them vulnerable to exploitation and bodily harm. Asian American women in general in the United States have reported hate incidents at more than twice the rate of men.
From stares and rude gestures on Victoria’s streets, to beatings in Vancouver, to online threats and harassment, and now to murder, North American citizens of Asian descent face growing racism in all its forms.
The Vancouver Police department reports that anti-Asian hate crimes have risen by 717% in the past year alone. In fact, the Canadian Chinese National Council reports that more anti-Asian racist incidents have been reported per capita in Canada than in the United States since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The pandemic, along with anti-Asian rhetoric around its origins, has brought back the kind of shameful anti-Asian racism that has found a home in Canada, both in law and in society, since before Confederation.
The trauma of being targets of such crimes is not a burden that those victimized should bear alone. At Bridges, we know the destructive, deadly cost of racist and gendered violence all too well.
We stand with the Asian-Canadian community – and with Black Lives Matter and Indigenous peoples – to work together to end racism and the hate crimes that it spawns.