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What’s Happening Around BC

History and Struggles: Identifying and Eliminating the Roots of Anti-Asian Racism in BC

Posted on May 19, 2021

 May 25, 2021, 3-5pm PST

Zoom webinar. Please register here.

For questions, contact the Resilience BC Hub at resiliencebc@vircs.bc.ca

The rise of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic is tied to a longer history of racialization and exclusion of Asians in Canada. This online panel offers critical insight into a painful past and how systemic inequities continue to deeply impact Asians today. It offers an opportunity to reflect on the history of diasporic Asians in BC, including their powerful acts of dissent and organizing, and the necessary actions to be taken to dismantle systemic barriers and disrupt racial biases.

Panelists:

Prof. Ann Kim is Associate Professor of Sociology at York University. She is a scholar of migration, race and ethnicity, and urban sociology, and has a long-standing interest in the Korean diaspora. Her past research in the area includes the examination of Korean transnational families and education migration, Korean seniors, ethnic entrepreneurship, and Korean ethnic identity and Asian panethnicity. She has also studied the experiences of North Korean migrants in Canada and is currently engaged in research on the racialization experiences of Korean and Asian university students.

 Judy Hanazawa’s community focus has been in human rights education and community development.  She served in past as Vice President of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) and Chair of the NAJC Human Rights Committee.  Since receiving her federal Redress payment in 1989, she has been an active member of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association (GVJCCA) and the GVJCCA Human Rights Committee.  She was GVJCCA president in 2000, served again on the GVJCCA board from 2014 to the present, and is the current president of the Greater Vancouver JCCA.

Sarah Kim is a passionate advocate for systems change and racial justice. She works as a community developer at Collingwood Neighbourhood House in East Vancouver on anti-racism and civic engagement initiatives using a systems change lens. Sarah also has a background in food security, food justice, and arts and culture. She is the daughter of South Korean immigrants and is grateful to be living and working as an uninvited guest on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

Ravi Saxena is the Executive Director at Immigrant & Multicultural Services Society of Prince George. Having resided in Prince George for nearly 12 years, Ravi has been promoting positive change and community growth in Northern BC. He founded “The Unsung Heroes of Northern BC” to celebrate people who have made extraordinary contributions to their communities in the north. He completed the MBA program at the University of Northern British Columbia and holds a strong track record of effective leadership and management style.

Moderator:

Dr. John Paul (JP) Catungal is Assistant Professor in the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice and incoming Interim Director of the Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies at the University of British Columbia. A first-generation migrant Filipinx Canadian scholar, his research, teaching and community engagement work is concerned with the cultural production and community organizing efforts of migrant, racialized and LGBTQ communities, particularly in sexual health, social services and education. JP is co-editor of “Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility” (University of Toronto Press, 2012) and a member of the editorial collective for ACME International Journal for Critical Geographies.

This event is organized by the Resilience BC Anti-Racism Network. The Network is funded by the Province of British Columbia and offers a province-wide approach to identifying and challenging racism.