RACISM IN IRVING CITY???

NB Telegraph-Journal | Saint John
As published on page B1 on July 13, 2005



Chinese university students harassed
Young people forced to dodge eggs, lit fireworks


Click to zoom(Cindy Wilson/Telegraph-Journal)
Vincent Zhang, left, and Coco Zhao stand in the bus stop at Woodhaven Drive and University Avenue where Ms. Zhao was egged on Mondy night.





BY SANDRA DAVIS
Telegraph-Journal

Chinese university student Doris Yu has had lit fireworks thrown at her, been pelted with eggs and screamed at.

During the latest incident on Monday night, she was hit on the foot with an egg and her friend, Coco Zhao, took one on the head.

As she stood at a bus stop on the corner of Woodhaven Drive and University Avenue in Saint John's North End Tuesday afternoon telling her story to a reporter, it happened again.

It was the third time in as many days but this time it was a verbal assault.

As three young men in a grey Chevrolet pickup truck sped down University Avenue, one of them gestured with an "up yours" sign out the truck window.

His face was contorted with what looked like rage or hate and he screamed something unintelligible at the group that included her friends, Ms. Zhao and Vincent Zhang.

At that point, Ms. Yu began to cry.
"I'm afraid to go out at night," said the third-year business student, tears running down her face.

"If you hadn't been here, they would have thrown more eggs.

"We're here without our families."
When confronted in their pickup truck at a nearby convenience store, the three young men involved in Tuesday afternoon's verbal attack at the bus stop readily admitted it was one of them who had yelled and gestured rudely out the window at the group just minutes before on University Avenue.

The young man couldn't understand what the big deal was, saying that they had done the same thing to someone else earlier that day and that person wasn't even Chinese.

"It was a joke," he said. "Lighten up."
He denied having anything to do with Monday's egg-throwing incidents, which the Saint John City Police are investigating.

Both Kevin Bonner, who is in charge of student services at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, and Sylvia Sparks, executive director of PRUDE (Pride of Race, Unity, Dignity through Education), are disgusted by what is happening.

"We're very concerned and very upset to hear about it. The international students in the city have generally been very welcomed," said Mr. Bonner.

Ms. Sparks gasped when told of the egg-pelting incident but said she is not shocked.

During an Asian Night hosted by PRUDE this spring, she heard several stories from residents who have experienced discrimination, mostly in the form of comments and dirty looks.

"The city needs a lot of education for this to stop. A lot of people are racist. The sad thing is they don't even know they are," she said.

"We want more people to come here. If these kids are going home and saying to people, 'don't go there, it's racist, it's discriminatory,' how are we ever going to build our population?" she says.

"I can just imagine how degrading it is to them."

She advises Asian students, who tend not to complain, to be more vocal about what is happening to them.

Monday night's egg throwing incident happened about 10 p.m. when a red mini-van, filled with young men and women, drove by, closely followed by a car.

They made one pass, then turned around and came back, pelting eggs all the way.

On Tuesday afternoon, remnants of egg that had run down the bus shelter were stuck to its walls and bits of shell littered the sidewalk.

This is the second time that Ms. Yu has been hit with an egg thrown from a passing vehicle as she walked along University Avenue.

In the fall of 2003, she wasn't so lucky; her face was badly bruised and police officers took her to the hospital for treatment.

Then, just this past Sunday, she and a group of friends were accosted in the parking lot at Tim Hortons by young people screaming at them to go back to China.

About two weeks ago, the friends dodged lit fireworks.

Since posting the incidents on the message board of a Saint John Chinese online community, at least four people have logged on to report similar experiences.

One person talks of being attacked uptown by apple-throwing teens one day last year.

Mr. Zhang guesses that more victims will come forward.

Ms. Zhao is scared and angry. "I don't know what I have done, why they are doing this to me. In China, if they do this to you, it means you have done something bad," she said.

"People say they want a long-term immigration strategy and then they do this," added Ms. Yu.

"I just feel sad. How can I walk down the street by myself?"