Burnaby woman launches online campaign to fight anti-Asian hate

BURNABY (NEWS 1130) — With a spate of anti-Asian crimes in North America over the past year, a Burnaby woman wants to help the local Asian community, especially those who have experienced hate – and are in need of somewhere to turn.

Karmina Cordero is putting together a social media campaign to help people understand the difficulties Asian-Canadians locally have been dealing with, with resources for education, information about community groups, and more.

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Cordero, who is Chinese-Canadian, says the idea came to her after seeing reports in the news about older Asians in the community being attacked during the last few months, pointing to recent stats from the Vancouver Police Department that found anti-Asian related incidents were up by 717 per cent in 2020.

“This is a collaborative community project. It’s not just me, there is a creator, @BornChinese [is the] Instagram account, that I am collaborating with. I am leveraging and using her platform. However, I also work at a tech company in Vancouver called Unbounce, and it is a landing page platform where I am using my company’s product to assemble this landing page. I basically was looking for the same kind of [one-stop] idea that I just couldn’t find, one source or place for me to figure out, ‘how can I get started?'” she tells NEWS 1130.

 

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Cordero says there are many people within her circle who have been feeling the devastation after the news out of Atlanta, Georgia, where six Asian women were brutally murdered.

“This has been a really tough week, I have to say. I think a lot of times people are definitely feeling it, especially isolating at home. A lot of my peers, including myself, we had pretty much a lifestyle shift. I don’t really go out alone anymore in the dark, very similar behaviours as well to my co-workers as well, my V-P of marketing also said the same thing; she’s not going out anymore, because you just don’t know,” she explains.

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She says another layer of difficulty added to this is the kind of attitudes many of Asian descent have been taught to observe, whether that’s not causing trouble, not “taking up space,” or to be respectful. However, Cordero says it’s time the local Asian community – and those around them – stand up for one another.

“I think the most important part is that, that education needs to be there to raise that awareness, before we figure out exactly what the solution is. We have to acknowledge that this is happening. And it is, a lot of times, unreported, a lot of people that I’ve heard haven’t reported their racist experience. It’s something that we bury under the rug,” she says.

More from @KarminaCordero: “I don’t really go out alone anymore in the dark, very similar behaviours as well to my co-workers…you just don’t know.” #StopAsianHate

— Ria Renouf (@riarenouf) March 19, 2021

While Cordero’s goal was to raise $1,500 she’s since surpassed that, and plans to do more with the social media campaign to keep raising awareness. 

If you’d like to learn more about Cordero’s effort, you can find the website here.