Gill sent this. I think she answers her own question with her first example. If you want to fight against hate, you have to show in any way you can no matter how big or how small that there is love and good in the world. Be the sort of person that you would want someone to be for you. That thought doesn’t feel like much some days, but it’s the one thing we can all control regardless of our circumstances.
Many lives have been lost as a result of this pandemic, however another pandemic that is even more insidious than covid is raging. It’s called hate. Why must people blame Asians for this flu?
Footsteps
My friend, a Cambodian born Canadian, was making her way out to her car after a long day of work. She works as an interpreter for one of the hospitals that serves a large Khmer population. Just as she went to get her keys from her purse, a man started taunting her with racist comments and slurs. She turned around just in time to have her assailant grab her by her free hand and bend two of her fingers back in a violent fashion. Within seconds the parking attendant, also Asian, came over and helped her back into the hospital. After it was determined her fingers had not been broken, she, along with a friend who was a nurse, walked back to her car. She told me she cried hot angry tears all the way home. The next day she had loads of text messages from the many employees of the hospital with whom she has had a rapport telling her that if she needed to have someone to walk her out at the end of her shifts, they would be more than happy to do it. The husband of her nurse friend who walked her out that night also left her containers of food to cheer her up.
Bigotry Flavored tea
My friend Jeff is also Cambodian, and he absolutely dotes on his 97-year-old grandma, Yea. She often sends him out to the nearby Tim Hortons. Two incidents have occurred there recently. About three months ago, while getting his grandma’s mint tea, the clerk only used a single pair of gloves for the three white patrons, but put three sets on when it was his turn. Then last week, once again getting Yea some mint tea, a man confronted him and told him to go back to China.
Question
How can we stop this gangrenous infection known as bigotry?