I sat frozen in my seat as I tried to process the unbelievable event that had just happened.
I was tired, coming home from a seven-hour retail shift, sitting through a 30-minute commute home. I routinely took out a pair of headphones and an issue of "The New Yorker" as I tried my best to pass the time. The subway is practically second nature to me, as a native Torontonian living in the suburbia of Northern Toronto.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a man coming up to me. He was (obnoxiously) trying to get my attention and clearly making a scene out of the whole ordeal.
"She's probably not from around here. She's not Canadian. She doesn't know how to be polite or say hello," he rambled on, while making blatantly racist remarks about immigrants and people of color.
"You immigrants should go back where you came from. We Canadian taxpayers should not be paying for you."
I looked around to find that I was the only minority in the vicinity of the subway car in a sea of white people. Being visibly scared and personally attacked, I quickly pressed the yellow emergency alarm strip and sat back down as the train came to a stop.
That was my first time pressing the emergency alarm.
Based on the title, it is pretty evident what this article will be covering. Racism is capable of making its way into any given situation whether you expect it or not.
Earlier, on July 31st, 19-year-old Tashia James, was charged with theft after a video surfaced of her robbing an elderly Filipino-Canadian woman and yelling racial slurs, including "Go back to China."
Of course, there are more instances of harassment on Toronto transit than what is seen on the evening news or what makes it onto the depths of the Internet.
As a Filipino-Canadian, it terrifies me to hear these things every time I go on the subway — especially after experiencing racism myself. I was born and raised in Toronto with English being my first (and only) language, and I am in disbelief whenever someone tells me to "go back where I came from" (though I would not mind a home-cooked meal at my parents' house or a shiny plane ticket to the beaches of Manila amid the cold Toronto weather).
I'm sure many other POCs relate to this sentiment of being "categorized" and "excluded" simply because of appearance. See, groups of people with a hate-motivated agenda in a city as diverse as Toronto terrifies me, especially after seeing the capabilities of such groups on online forums and social media.
The TTC launched an anti-harassment app and campaign in September 2017, calling attention to the real-life situations of riders. The "This is Where..." initiative posters describe realistic instances of racism, sexual harassment and assault. Though, will such a campaign address the bystander effect commonly described by victims of harassment?
If you or a group of friends come across an instance of harassment, I cannot stress this enough: Speak up.
Racism can be faced in numbers. You will not know the power of words or standing up until you experience it yourself.
