25/12/2025
VERONICA’S SHOP WAS TARGETED BY RACIST HATE. THIS IS HOW HER COMMUNITY RESPONDED
Veronica Nou has skin so thick she calls herself a crab. Arriving in Australia from Cambodia as a refugee aged 11, she has endured racist attacks for decades.
The latest was when she found a placard in front of her western Sydney pharmacy on November 19 that read: “No Asian slum-city in St Marys.”
The message was signed off by a white supremacist party, which The Sydney Morning Herald has chosen not to name.
Nou said she initially missed the sign because she entered her shop through the back.
“Then people started coming in saying, ‘Do you know what is taped up outside?’ And I was like, ‘No?’ I had no clue,” she said.
Seeing the sign, Nou was taken aback. “I’m not the only Asian in the area, but I’m probably the most obvious one,” she said.
Multiple community members rushed over to help Nou remove the placard.
But, over the coming days, Nou’s customers came in to tell her they had seen other signs. Nou told them: “I don’t need to see them, thank you for letting me know. Just rip them down.”
And they did, furiously.
“I really felt this strong wave of support from people who made the effort and the time to come in and check up on me,” Nou said.
“A lady came in and brought me a little bunch of flowers to say we stand by you, you’ve always been there for us, just ignore these people, they’re not part of our community, they’re not welcome around here.”
Police initially said they could not investigate the matter because the signs had been taken down.
That was until a local working in public health heard what happened to Nou and was so outraged by the police’s response that she contacted the local area command’s multicultural liaison officer, who met with Nou.
“I’m really glad that it’s being taken on board,” Nou said. “I’m a little saddened by the fact that it took some additional prodding, and it wasn’t something that was automatically done the first time around, but I’m glad that it’s moving in the right direction now.”
Nou said her career in healthcare helped change her perspective.
“When you get that understanding that you can do good, you look at other people who are commenting negatively or complaining, and you start to realise that actually, they’re the ones that are really nothing.”
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CCTV footage shows two men placing a placard in front of the pharmacy that read: “No Asian slum-city in St Marys.”
