I tell this story a lot so I thought it would be nice to finally put it in writing. I love Vancouver as a city — the mountains, Stanley Park, the food scene and I have some pretty cool friends there. But the thing is that I’ve experienced more direct racism there than any other city in the world. It’s strange. Living in Toronto my whole life, my impression was that the same kind of multiculturalism and acceptance of diversity would span over and across the country. Sure, Vancouver is multicultural as well but it’s not the same kind of multiculturalism that you’ll see in T.O. It has a very dense Asian population but it’s like the Asians are all segregated. The Chinese hang out with the Chinese; the Koreans hang out with the Koreans, etc etc. I’m speaking generally, of course. I think the reason for this is that there are a lot of fresh immigrants that tend to stick within their own cultural group and speak their native tongue over speaking English. In other words, there are a lot less white-washed Asians like me. Maybe I just spent too much time in Richmond. That’s the Markham equivalent of Vancouver. (And for those not from Toronto, Markham is popularly known as the Asian district.) Regardless, it definitely feels like there is a lot less intermixing of cultures over there and that might be the cause of cultural tensions and racism to occur. That’s my guess.
Anyways, this was one experience: I was on the SkyTrain. I don’t exactly remember where I was going but I had a long trip so I was sitting by a window, book in hand. There was a woman — Caucasian, early 40s — sitting in front of me. She looked a little disheveled and was being a little loud so I overheard about how she was lost and that her phone was dead and she was trying to get in touch with her sister. The guy sitting beside her kindly offered his phone for her to use. She used it for a long while but after getting frustrated at her sister on her phone, and when she realized she wasn’t getting any more on track, she just gave the phone back and suddenly started acting frantic. She got up and suddenly yelled, “Where is this train going?!” No one seemed to answer her so she looked around to pick on someone.
With the commotion going on, I had been watching her and I realized I hadn’t been reading my book or minding my own business when I made eye-contact with her. My natural reaction was to shift my eyes downwards towards my book. “You, where is this train going?” She was talking to me. I told her I didn’t know where the train was going because I wasn’t from the city. She instantly became furious and yelled at me, “You live in my fucking country. You tell me where this train is going now.” I was speechless. I didn’t even know what to say except say, “I”m from Toronto”. At this point, everyone else on the train was as appalled as I was. People were ready to back me up but thank god the train came to a stop the next few seconds because she felt like getting off for whatever reason. But before getting she yelled “Chink, chink, nigger, spick!”, pointing at random people in-between. She left everyone on the train kind of shaking their heads and shrugging at each other. The woman did seem a little inebriated. But drunk or high, it was no excuse for her behaviour. It’s surprising to me how people can still feel this way in this day and age.
People tell me that I should let sleeping dogs lie. That’s probably why I attract all the crazies. I swear one day I’m going to get stabbed from pissing off a hobo. It’s just hard for me to pretend people don’t exist when they talk to me. I always speak back or make a gesture for “no, sorry” when someone on the street asks me for change. I’m told I should just look straight, not make eye-contact but something in my head tells me that I’m more likely to set someone off by ignoring them than acknowledging their existence… I know it’s dangerous to interact with sketchy people but at least I have a funny story to tell later, haha. Someone mentioned that I should start writing about my crazier, more unexpected experiences so I might do that within the next few posts.