The Color of My Skin

On June 16, I experienced an event for the first time after living in Canada for 10 years. I got off at the Chinook C-Train Station, and headed towards the bus-waiting zone for the next shuttle bus to come. Suddenly, I heard someone was yelling at me from the back:” hey-hey-hey!” I turned around, seeing a homeless guy sitting on a bench near the bus stop, staring at me with hostility. The way he looked at me was not just unfriendly but rather hostilely.

At the moment, I knew the next thing he’s going to say wouldn’t be nice. So I ignoring him and turned away.

“Hey! Where you’re from? You’re Chinese? You eat dogs? Hahaha!” The homeless guy tried to get my attention. I shook my head and kept ignoring his mean demeanor, which did not seem to turn him away at all. “Get the hell out of this country and go back to where you came from. You are not a Canadian!” He kept on humiliating me.

I was deeply annoyed by his remark on my origin. “You eat dogs? Eh? You are not a Canadian so get out of here!” he kept harassing me and humiliating me despite my indifference.

Ignoring him obviously didn’t help, he kept on rumbling rude racist remarks and I felt the need to say something back to him.

“Sir, it is highly inappropriate. We are in Canada. I don’t know why you picked me and are speaking to me like that. I hope you stop harassing me right now, otherwise I’ll call a police.” I replied calmly.

“Oh, f**k you. You Chinese! Get the hell out of here” he kept on irritating me. “Well, I was born in China and you were right on that. But I’ve never eaten dogs in my whole life.” I tried to sound as calm as possible, despite my blood beginning to boiling.

“Oh you ate dog, and you are not a Canadian. Fuck you!” he kept on his verbal abuse until seeing me dialing on my phone.

He grabbed his bag and fled like a coward while mumbling some words.

There is one more detail to add: The homeless guy is not a white person but first nations.

When the shuttle bus arrived, I told this story to the bus driver. He suggested me file a complaint to Calgary Transit.

So I called Calgary Transit to inform them the issue. Instead of showing a fraction of sympathy towards the situation I was in, she pretty much told me that it was none of their (Calgary Transit) business in a cold voice. At the end of the phone call, I was directed to the police department.

There was neither sympathy nor understanding in the way she responded to my story. I was a bit upset with her. Sure if you work at the call center and someone called in to complaint and you couldn’t do anything about it because the issue was simply outside of your scope. Instead of saying it’s none of your business, at least show some sympathy and understanding to the person who called in. Imagine if the Calgary Transit lady was on the other side of the line, how would that indifferent response make her feel?

An hour later when I completely calmed down, I called Calgary Police non-emergency line. A female police officer answered the phone. I told her my story of confronting the homeless guy from the beginning to the end in detail.

This time, I got a completely different reaction: the officer listened so patiently with a great deal of sympathy and understanding while typing the details out.

“This is what confuses me all the time: why we (Chinese) have to be teased for eating dogs all the time, and what is funny about that? I’ve never eaten a dog my entire life, and I’m mostly a vegetarian. Just because I’m not white, does it mean I have to be told to get out of Canada and go back to where I was from?” I couldn’t control my emotions and wept on the phone.

“I’m sorry to hear that. His comment to you was totally uncalled for and not appropriate”, said the police officer with a sympathetic voice.

“I wasn’t being rude or anything but just letting you know how I felt about what happened to me. I came to Canada in 2007 for a university degree, and remained in the country ever since. For almost 10 years living in Canada, I’ve never had anyone picked on me and told me to return to my origin. I’ve never taken anything for granted and I work hard to earn my living. This is Canada, and I didn’t understand why the non-white population is discriminated against simply because of their skin color? I don’t need to be white in order to be respected by others.” I started to sob.

“I’m so sorry my dear. You are absolutely right. I feel for you. We will definitely do all that we can on this matter. Let me take down some details about this homeless person. What was he wearing and how old he is?” (Police)

Before ending the phone call with the police, I left my phone number and full name.

After this event, I felt the need to blog about what happened. This story is not just an incident of running into a mentally non-stable homeless person beside a bus station. Rather, it reflects some bigger societal problems and call for actions are required.

We are all human, with a desire for equality and being treated fairly regardless of our races or origins. Despite our hopes, racism, misconception and white privilege still exit. Being a Chinese myself, I could never understand where does this hatred towards Chinese immigrants come from, and why this race has been teased for eating dogs for as long as Chinese migrants exist.

Canada will celebrate its 150 birthday this coming July. As a young and emerging country, it needs migrants from all over the world in order to grow and flourish.

What does it mean to be Canadian? It’s not being white, for sure; this term is defined by diversity, hospitality, and collaboration.

Overall, the term Canadian includes people of all skin color, all religions, and nationalities. For those who discriminate non-white Canadian residents against their skin color and tell them to get out, they are simply uneducated in regards to Canada’s history and what it means to be a Canadian.

If you are the next one who encounters a similar situation like I did, the best way to combat is to ask the discriminating party to refresh his or her knowledge on Canadian history.

My blog is not written to express my anger towards the rude remark I got for my origin. The article is to call for actions: City of Calgary needs to devote more efforts in building the city as a discrimination-free place to its fellow residents.

After sharing my experience with a few people, I heard a heart-breaking news from one of them: just 2 days a go, a Nigerian guy was stabbed by an Aboriginal person at the City Hall C-Train Station. The guy, who has his family in Nigeria, was just located in Calgary for a new job a day before the tragedy happened. The odd is that they neither crossed paths priory to the stabbing occurred, nor did the Nigerian guy have talked to the first nation guy. The murderer was arrested immediately after the conviction and was disciplined according to the laws. However, no matter what the police have done after the fact, it con never make up the loss of the victims life, and the loss to the wife and his 3 children.

I felt really bad for the death of that Nigerian guy. I was lucky that I wasn’t stabbed and am still alive. If racism has already caused a death in Calgary, eliminating such issue and improve attitudes towards different races should be among the priories for City of Calgary and its Police Department.

(photo credit: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/c-train-stabbing-fatal-nicolas-nwonye-victim-nursing-student-keeton-gagnon-1.4147312)

I was asked a question in the past: “have you ever wished to be white?”

I said NO to the questioner. The reason is the following:

I am Chinese, and am proud of my heritage. I have awesome olive skin brown eyes, and black hair. I am absolutely stunning, intelligent and unique.

I don’t need to be white to get respect. They need to respect me for who I am.