Hi everyone! My name is Brandon Chen, I’m in Grade 10, and I’m a participant in the LWTA program at Markville. I’m really excited to share with you guys our project that I worked on with my friends, Tim Yuan, and Kelly Szeto.
We created a poster to raise awareness for racism towards East Asians stemming from the coronavirus pandemic, and as a group, we decided to choose this topic because we feel that this is arguably the most pertinent and poignant issue right now towards east asians in our community and abroad.
During these times, we’ve seen all too often the ugly side of humanity. Incidents of xenophobia and racism towards east asians, as i’m sure you’ve all seen on the news, have become commonplace in canada, and all parts of the world.
In Montreal, Buddhist artifacts at the Chua quan am temple were targeted and destroyed. In Vancouver, a 92 year old asian man with dementia was verbally abused and physically assaulted. Even at home, a woman was verbally assaulted at a Whole foods on Highway 7 in Markham, with the aggressor screaming “Get away from me. Get out of here. You Chinese, get away from me."
Such are examples of the abuse that many of us east asians face on a daily basis. But the duality of human nature shows that good can, and will coexist with evil. Our poster aims to help by raising awareness to the issue, and helping victims of discrimination reach out and seek help via a reporting form made by the CCNCTO.
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