Against anti-Asian racism and violence

April 8, 2021
We stand in solidarity with all Asian members of the UBC Science community.

Last week members of the UBC Science community joined together in a community of care in support of faculty, staff and students impacted by increased anti-Asian violence and words of hate in Vancouver, across Canada, and internationally. We can't express how profoundly disturbed we are by this trend, and we stand in solidarity with all Asian members of the UBC Science community.

These incidents of racism have increased dramatically in frequency since the beginning of the pandemic. To be clear, they're part of a cycle of hate and exclusion with an insidious, long history—with examples occurring right here in Vancouver.

Bringing our community members together is a start. But we have a tremendous amount of work to create an environment where Asian members of our community, as well as people of colour and Indigenous people, feel free to share concerns or fears relating to their lived experiences at UBC openly and frankly. We are still grappling with how to best support those hurt by senseless acts of violence and words that scar—but are determined to grow our efforts to embed inclusion in science, whether in research, or teaching and learning.

President Ono has made a powerful statement of solidarity with members of our Asian communities. We also wanted to ensure that support, learning opportunities, and bystander training that helps leaders and all our community members effectively respond to racism, are prominently listed on our site.

Meigan Aronson, Dean, UBC Science
Ninan Abraham, Associate Dean, Equity and Diversity, UBC Science
Sara Harris, Associate Dean, Academic, UBC Science
Ian Cavers, Associate Dean, Students, UBC Science

Resources

Help on campus and off

Learn more

Allyship and being a better bystander

Chris Balma
balma@science.ubc.ca
604.822.5082
c 604-202-5047