Racist graffiti at Burnaby's Metrotown touches on ‘underground’ issues: advocate
By
Jeremy Nuttall, 24 hours Vancouver
Thursday, November 21, 2013 8:51:51
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According to Jeanne Fike of the Burnaby Intercultural Planning Table, a group working toward racial harmony, despite the organization’s efforts there is still a problem with bigotry in Burnaby — it’s just not always easily visible.
“I think in Burnaby racism is more underground, it’s more subtle, it’s not as overt as it is in many other places in the world,” Fike said. “But I have no doubt it is alive and well, thank heaven we have human rights legislation.”
But Fike said the majority of residents in Burnaby would be appalled at the graffiti, and significant efforts have been made to tackle such issues, adding she wanted to apologize to the Chinese community that the “shocking” incident had happened.
“These kinds of folks (the vandals) are exactly the kind of folks we are trying to reach,” said Fike. “We have to take purposeful action in developing a more welcoming, inclusive community and we need to have a lot of cross-cultural education.”
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