About 300 people turned up at the “Stand Up for Racial Harmony” rally in Richmond on Sunday to speak out against the distribution of anti-Chinese flyers in the community over the past months. The flyers directed readers to anti-immigration websites.
Organizer Edward Liu said instead of just sending out the important message that racism will not be tolerated, the rally also helped people to visually experience the diversity in the community. “We are not surrounded by racist people who try to generate hate between cultures, or extremists who try to divide the community by provoking fear and anger. We are surrounded by people who want to join hand to make our community safe by promoting racial harmony. We are surrounded by neighbors who enjoys each other’s presence, regardless of what they look like and where they come from. We are surrounded by people who love this community.”
Balwant Sanghera, one of the speakers at the rally, reminded the crowd that Canada became the first country in the world to adopt multiculturalism as a national policy back in 1971, and Richmond has been a multicultural community for many decades. He stated that Richmond is one of the most multicultural communities in Canada and that we are very proud to have excellent intercultural harmony in the community. Mr. Sanghera told the attendees that Richmond Multicultural Community Services (RMCS) condemns these acts of racism and stand solidly with the Chinese-Canadian community. He stated that Canadian MOSAIC is like a flower garden home to more than 200 communities from coast to coast to coast. “Diversity is this country’s greatest strength. We should all be proud as Canadians and condemn and push back any attempts to create divisions amongst us.”
Lisa Descary was one of the people who received a racist flyer delivered to her house, which motivated her to help organize this rally. “When I received one of these racist anti-immigrant flyers in my mailbox a couple of weeks ago, I knew we had to organize a response to show the racists that our community won’t stand for this. We won’t let racism divide us.”
Descary also mentioned in her speech that scapegoating immigrants will just give racists the platform to spread hateful sentiments. “It is important that people hear the message that we won’t let immigrants and the rest of the Chinese community be scapegoated for things like rising house prices,” she said. “One of the things that people don’t seem to realize is that not everyone in the Chinese immigrant community is a millionaire! Chinese people themselves are being hit by the same affordability crisis. They, too are having trouble finding homes in Richmond that they can afford, but the racist narrative that paints every Chinese homebuyer as a rich one obscures this reality. Chinese or not, all of us are facing the same problem.”
Annie Ohana, a Surrey Secondary School teacher, echoed these sentiments. “When I read those Nasty words. I read hatred, I read prejudice, I read fear, I read words that represented oppression. Those who sent the [racist] flyers made one thing loud and clear… we are that powerful, we are that strong, they want to silence us because we are that loud. Our shared histories say so, we will not be divided. We are United.”
In the end of the rally, Liu encouraged people to step outside of their comfort zone and make friends with their neighbours. “There are many things that we can do to keep our community safe from racism. But the key is to step outside of your comfort zone. In the next 2 weeks, may I ask you to think of one thing, to reach out to your neighbor. It doesn’t need to be something spectacular. No act of kindness is ever too small. The key is to step outside of your comfort zone.”
The rally also distributed door sign saying “Richmond is a racism free zone”. People were encouraged to put the sign on their doors to help neighbors feel safe and supported.
The rally also prepared a petition to urge the Richmond RCMP to make their best efforts to investigate the racist flyers incidents and prevent future similar incidents from happening; and appeal to the different levels government to take all steps to promote multiculturalism and strengthen racial harmony in our community.
For those who want to participate, they can also go online to www.change.org and search the petition by the title “We urge the Richmond RCMP to stop a racist flyer targeting the Chinese population”, or follow the following link:
