Solidarity with Asian communities
We, in the Department of Sociology and the Graduate Program in Sociology, express our support for members of Asian communities and their allies, and we would like to reiterate that we stand in solidarity against racial violence and aggression in all its forms for all racialized groups.
We denounce the recent mass shooting deaths of eight people in Atlanta-area massage parlours, six of whom were Asian women (Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Kim, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Xiaojie Tan, Yong Ae Yue), as well as on-going violence and microaggressions against Asian people, many seniors and women, in Canada. The targeted shootings of Asian women in massage parlours and anti-Asian racism, more generally, are not merely recent and random occurrences, and they are not limited to the US; the intersections of racism, sexism, classism and other forms of discrimination are rooted in the historical formation of the Canadian state. In other words, anti-Asian racism is a structural, cultural and social phenomenon rather than an individual psychological occurrence.
Historically, institutionalized racism against Asian people was observed in the form of the Chinese Head Tax (1885-1923), the Komagata Maru incident in 1914, the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, and the internment of Japanese Canadians during WWII. More recently, anti-Asian racism manifests in policies and practices on immigration, employment, education and other institutions. And now, the COVID-19 pandemic and diplomatic disputes have made scapegoats out of Asian people and the scapegoating has exacerbated racially motivated violent and hateful acts. The actual number of anti-Asian hate incidents in Canada since March 2020 is far more than the reported 1,150 cases. And the impact of racism cannot be quantified; it is experienced directly and indirectly, and affects both physical and mental health.
For support, more information, or to report an incident, visit the following:
- Chinese Canadian National Council Social Justice
- Responding to Hate Toolkit, Ryerson (PDF)
- Report an incident, Project 1907
We call on our students, faculty, and administration at the university to join us in advancing racial and gender equity.
Joint Statement by the Sociology Undergraduate and Graduate Program, York University, Toronto; March 30, 2021