Community Organizing Against Anti-Chinese, Anti-Asian Racism Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Join us for presentations and a discussion about organizing in the face of surging anti-Chinese and anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Olivia Chow: Resistance Against a History of Blaming 

This talk discusses past campaigns against anti-Asian racism in Canada. Olivia Chow discusses her involvement in organizing for retribution over the Chinese Head Tax. She discusses how resistance to the CTV documentary “Campus Give Away,” that characterized Asian Canadians as foreigners taking places from  ‘Canadian’ university students, led to the creation of the Chinese Canadian National Council. Today, during the COVID-19 pandemic, front line Chinese and Asian immigrant care workers face compounding difficulties of having to regulate others' behaviours, work long hours, live in poverty, and feel precarious due to immigration status - all while they are blamed and subject to violence due to racism. 

Xiaobei Chen: Chinese Canadians’ Responses to Racisms in the COVID-19 Pandemic

This talk begins with a discussion of the upsurge of anti-Chinese, anti-Asian racism amid the COVID-19 pandemic, situated in the context of racialized impact on different communities. It discusses the complex picture of how Chinese Canadian communities have understood and responded to the worsening situation. It offers reflections about challenges in community organizing at this juncture: fractures among Chinese Canadians, the depoliticizing neoliberal approach to racism, and the divisive model minority discourse. 

This webinar is presented by the Jack Layton Chair with support from the Unifor Sam Ginden Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Ryerson University, the Department of Sociology at Ryerson University, the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University, the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson, and the Ryerson Liberal Arts Society.

This event will be Live-Streamed online with closed-captioning. For other accessibility accommodations including ASL, please email laytonchair@torontomu.ca

Panelist Bios:

Xiaobei Chen is a Professor of Sociology and an Associate Chair in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Carleton University. She is President of the Canadian Sociological Association. Her current research and community engagement are around anti-Chinese, anti-Asian racism associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Her research and teaching interests include: sociology of childhood and youth, governance and power, citizenship, racism, colonialism, the Chinese diaspora, and Buddhist social thought. Her latest book is a co-edited volume, The Sociology of Childhood and Youth in Canada. 

Olivia Chow is the Founder and Director of the Institute for Change Leaders (external link)  since March 2015. Olivia has a certificate from Marshall Ganz Leadership course from Harvard Kennedy's School Executive Program and has taught over 6,000 people across Ontario. She empowered many women to make a difference through teaching Feminist Community Organizing at George Brown College’s Assaulted Women and Children Counselling and Advocacy Program for six years. Until 2015, Olivia held elected offices for 30 years as a school trustee, City Councillor, and a Member of Parliament. She has tirelessly championed for a universal early childhood education program, a national public transit strategy, and fair immigration policies.