A local diversity advocate was shocked after recently being refused entrance to a Christmas event because of his ethnicity.
Mission resident Ken Herar, who writes about diversity issues in a column for the Abbotsford-Mission Times, was making arrangement to attend a Christmas function only to have the host say, "Sorry, we're not allowing East Indians at this party."
Bemused at first, Herar later got angry and posted his thoughts about the incident on his Facebook and blog pages.
"My feelings weren't hurt, but I was disappointed in society," Herar said.
"[She probably had] the stereotype that too many South Asian guys together are going to cause trouble."
Reaction to the story on his social network was fast and furious.
"My Caucasian friends were really shocked . . . and one of my South Asian friends didn't believe it," said Herar, who also posted letters received in recent years that he believes illustrate that racism and the cultural divide between different ethnic groups is getting worse.
"We all need to make an effort to eliminate racism," he said.
Larger society has to overcome stereotypical thinking, but minority groups need to take more steps to integrate themselves, particularly in communities like Abbotsford and Surrey that have concentrated ethnic populations, Herar said.
"People feel very comfortable in their own ethnic communities, and there's nothing wrong with that," he said.
"But we need to break those barriers. [South Asians] need to recognize we need to get more involved in larger society."
Herar said in the 1980s when he was growing up and attending school in Mission, there was more integration among different groups of people.
"Now, I rarely ever see people from different races walking together. Young kids generally stick together," he said.
There is a growing culture gap that needs to be addressed both in schools and the larger community, according to Herar.
"If we don't recognize the problem, we can't fix it . . . isolation creates hate and this affects [all of us]."
RBaker@abbotsfordtimes.com
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