A racist message was written on a building in Victoria’s Chinatown over the weekend.
Allen Ma, Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association president told CHEK News that a racist message was discovered on a white column in front of the Victoria Chinese Public School on Saturday.
“I am pretty upset,” Ma said. “It hurts that some people could do things like that.”
The message appeared one day before a planned Black Lives Matter event in downtown Victoria.
Ma learned of the incident yesterday morning from a police officer that there was racist graffiti on the building. He said particularly since COVID-19 began, Victoria’s Chinatown hasn’t openly experienced the racism that has been seen in other larger cities such as Vancouver.
“We have never had this sort of thing happen,” he said. “Even though there has been the anti-Asian stuff going on in Vancouver, it never happened in Victoria. So, it surprised me and it makes me really upset.”
Ma said he couldn’t find anyone to remove the disgusting message from the building on Saturday, he and colleagues went down and cleaned it off themselves.
“When you drive by you wouldn’t see it, but when you’re walking you could see it,” Ma said, adding. “I’m pretty hurt. It’s insulting.”
As more businesses in Victoria’s Chinatown begin reopening, Ma hopes that anti-Asian messages don’t appear on other buildings in the community.
“I hope there are no copycats,” he said.
Ma said he hopes whoever is responsible turns themselves into police and stops spreading hate.
“At this moment we’re just keeping cool. We don’t want to create any big problems for society.”
The Victoria Chinese Public School is located on Fisgard Street. The historical building was constructed in 1909 for the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association.
Nicholas Pescod
