“An incident that has always stuck with me happened when I was in third grade: A few of my friends were playing a game with kids from another grade during recess. I asked if I could play and one of them said, “No, because you’re Chinese.”
I was shocked because I never experienced racism or viewed myself differently from others. I walked away teary-eyed. Fortunately, one of my friends came to tell me not to listen to the kid because she was prejudiced. Coincidentally, we just learned what prejudice meant a few weeks before this incident.
These types of experiences shouldn’t be happening to anyone. We’re all Canadian; why should the colour of our skin or ethnicity define how Canadian we are? Canada is a country that values multiculturalism and equality, which we should embrace. Unfortunately, racist behaviours have been on the rise recently. Racists are verbally or physically attacking others because of their ethnicity or skin colour. Growing up, I was taught to let it go, ignore it, and it’ll go away. Unfortunately, that is not the case. We need to talk about these issues and make these cases heard. That’s a step in the right direction to finding a solution to end all racism.
在我三年级时，同学因为我是華裔而不让我和他们玩耍，当时我的朋友安慰我说不用理她，因为她有错误偏见。这件事一直困扰着我，我觉得大家都是加拿大人，都生活在重视多元文化和平等的加拿大，为什么要单凭肤色或种族来判定我们是不是加拿大人？忽视这种行为和现象并不会使它消失，我们应共同探讨相关问题，让大众了解问题的严重性，从而找到终止种族歧視的解决方法。” — Ryan
REN Project 