Asian Studies Statement on Anti-Asian Racism

The Department of Asian Studies joins voices across UBC and the world in condemning the violent hate crime in Atlanta which targeted Asian American women at a time of ongoing anti-Asian racism in Canada and the US. We invite faculty, staff, students, alumni, and all members of our Department of Asian Studies community to recognize this incident and to reflect on racism experienced and witnessed in the US, and in Canada, British Columbia, and Vancouver.

Half of UBC students identifying as ethnically Asian have experienced discrimination according to the most recent AMS survey. During the pandemic, 83% of people reporting racist incidents in Canada were of East Asian ethnicity. Half of all reported incidents took place in BC in public spaces like streets, sidewalks, and parks. Women were targeted in 70% of these incidents.

As an institution, UBC must do better: approximately half our student body is ethnically Asian yet only 5% of instructors identify as racialized women in a city in which 51.6% of residents identify as a “visible minority.”

As a department aimed at fostering the study of Asian cultures, thought, religions, and languages, we must work in solidarity with all members of our scholarly community to exemplify anti-racist approaches in our learning, teaching, and research and to enable uncomfortable conversations about racism and inequities.

Below is a webinar on the asymmetrical and inequitable effects of the pandemic on communities marginalized by race, class, age, gender, religion, sexuality, etc. (March 24).

Following the event listing is a set of resources we collated in response to this violent incident of anti-Asian racism, intended to offer support, intervention, and an understanding of lived histories.

“The Deadly Intersections of COVID-19”: Webinar on March 24, 2021, at 11:00 am PDT

Panel Description:

The speed and force with which COVID-19 spread across the globe caught states, public health officials and healthcare systems unprepared. Initial measures implemented by governments of all political stripes were based on the premise that the pandemic would be ‘an equalizer’. However, this assumption fell apart immediately as infection and death rates proved to be shockingly higher among communities already marginalized by race, class, age, gender, religion, sexuality, etc.

This Webinar features researchers from an international team studying the asymmetrical effects of the pandemic. Highlighting how the pandemic interacted with racial, colonial and global structures of inequality, the presenters discuss the need for pandemic measures to actively counter these inequalities.

Speakers:

Sunera Thobani, UBC, Canada

Radha D’Souza, University of Westminster, UK

Suvendrini Perera, Curtin University, Australia

Farida Akhtar, UBINIG, Bangladesh

Mieka Smart, Michigan State University, USA

Pre-registration is required for participation. Please pre-register here.

For any further information, please contact Reetinder Kaur at re86@mail.ubc.ca.

Resources in response to anti-Asian racism

Compiled by UBC Department of Asian Studies (March 18, 2021), additional resources are available here.

Anonymous reporting of racist incidents

Report a Racist Incident (Elimin8hate)

https://www.elimin8hate.org/fileareport

Student experiences

AMS student experience survey report re: discrimination

“All Respondents: International students are more likely to report experiencing racial discrimination (43%) than domestic students (35%). Those with ethnicities other than Caucasian are significantly more likely to report experiencing racial discrimination, with 22% of Caucasian students reporting these experiences versus 48% of Chinese students and 45% of South Asian students. Women (40%) and those who identify as non-binary or two-spirit (55%) are about twice as likely as men (21%) to experience gender discrimination. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Pansexual and Asexual (LGBTQPA) students, at 42%, are more than three times as likely as heterosexual students (12%) to report discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

Undergraduate Students: The majority of undergraduate students (57%) continue to experience some form of discrimination on campus, most commonly due to race/ethnicity (36%), gender (32%) or age (25%). 11% of students who report facing this discrimination experience it frequently. After significant declines in 2018, the proportion of undergraduate students who report ever experiencing the different types of discrimination has remained stable over the past year (58% in 2018, to 57% in 2019), with proportions within discrimination sub-categories also remaining stable.

Graduate Students: 59% of graduate students report experiencing some form of discrimination on campus, with 12% stating they experience it frequently/often. The most common types experienced are gender-based (38%), race/ethnicity-based (34%) and age-based (30%). The proportion of students who report experiencing the different types of discrimination has remained stable over the past year.” (p. 29)

Source: AMS Academic Experience Survey 2019

Media representations, statistics

“Anti-Asian Violence Spiked During COVID-19, Here’s What You Should Know” (Isabelle Docto)

“Decade-old article on universities being ‘too Asian’ sparks panel conversation on anti-Asian racism at UBC (Mandy Huynh)

Survey of Chinese Canadians’ experience of discrimination during COVID (Angus Reid Institute & University of Alberta)

Bystander intervention

Free intervention training (Hollaback!)

Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, Direct

UBC Public Humanities Hub re: Bystander Intervention Training

When safe to do so, could I Distract by starting a conversation with the person targeted, and create a safe barrier between them and the harasser? Could I Delegate by seeking assistance from someone else with more authority in the given setting? Could I Document by taking a video to give to the person targeted so they can decide how to use it on their journey to closure and healing? What about providing support after a Delay, asking the person targeted how they are doing after the incident has passed? Is it safe enough to be Direct, addressing the harasser and harassment directly and asserting that the person targeted deserves to be treated with respect? Different scenarios call for different approaches. Let’s all take an active role in creating communities of care.