Photo by Robert Couse-Baker

At the end of March, I wrote “Naming Anti-Asian Racism” for the Redbud Writers’ blog on Patheos.com. I started my article with a personal story, then went on to express my dismay over the increasing anti-Asian racism during this coronavirus pandemic.  I introduced a response composed by a collection of Asian American Christian leaders in the United States, and ended with the full text of their “Official Statement on Anti-Asian Racism in the Time of COVID-19.”

As a Canadian commenting on the experience in the U.S., I offered this explanation:

I suppose some might say that all of this is none of my business since I live north of the border. Canada is not the United States. And in this pandemic, I’m not the one experiencing coronavirus discrimination in stores, or having racial slurs hurled at me, or being told to go back to China even though I was born here, and my family has been in the country for over a century. But I am hardly a disinterested party. I have family and friends who live in California, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and all over. I care about the United States as my country’s near neighbor. I care about anti-Asian racism as a global problem that can spread like a virus anywhere.

In Canada, incidents of anti-Asian racism have also been increasing. In a recent incident, a 92-year-old man with dementia was assaulted in a convenience store by a man who shoved him to the ground and included COVID-19 in his racist remarks. A woman standing in line waiting to enter a grocery store was yelled at by another shopper, “Get away from me. Get out of here. You Chinese, get away from me.”

Such anti-Asian racism is never okay, and being able to name it is an important step toward addressing the injustice. I’m glad I wrote my article. I’m glad I included the anti-racism statement with a link so people could find out more and sign if they wished.

But I wasn’t prepared for the anger. The last time I checked, my article had received over 120 comments. On the plus side, the number of comments might mean that people were at least reading my article. But many of the comments weren’t about my article at all. Some had used the opportunity to raise their own agenda. Some railed in general against so-called Christian behaviour. Some focused on personally attacking other commenters.

I tried to respond to the few substantive comments, and I asked the blog moderator about the comments policy and what monitoring might be done. But when it came to the anger, attacks, and rude comments, I didn’t even try to engage directly. Given the level of discourse, any possibility of real dialogue seemed unlikely.

Yet simply ignoring the angry comments makes me feel uneasy. Was I right — am I right — to ignore them? Should I have at least tried to respond? How do you handle anger?

April Yamasaki is an ordained minister with twenty-five years of pastoral ministry experience, and the author of Four Gifts: Seeking Self-care for Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength; Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for Personal Renewal; and other books on Christian living. She currently serves as resident author with Valley CrossWay Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and often speaks in churches and other settings. For more information, see aprilyamasaki.com and WhenYouWorkfortheChurch.com.