The Bank of Canada purged the image of an Asian-looking woman from its new $100 banknotes after focus groups raised questions about her ethnicity.
I had assumed, wrongly, that the most racist part of this article was going to be that a (probably) super white Canadian focus group thought the woman on the banknote looked Asian, yet couldn't identify which type of Asian she was. Then, I thought to myself, wrongly again, that maybe that wasn't the most racist part. Maybe the most racist part was that after this cracker council decided the woman to be "some type of Asian" the racially sensitive (or insensitive?) government "purged" the image of the "some type of Asian" woman. I'm not sure if the government did not believe that the Asian woman accurately represented the ever-changing face of Canada or if they just couldn't tolerate praising unidentifiable Asian women on their currency. I will go ahead and assume that Canada has an overarching "no minorities allowed on currency" policy. This was only the most racist part until I read the second sentence.
The original image intended for the reverse of the plastic polymer banknotes, which began circulating last November, showed an Asian-looking woman scientist peering into a microscope.
BOOM! Stereotype of "Asian-looking woman scientist peering into a microscope" wins again! White people assuming all Asians look the same? Racist, but forgivable. Said white people removing general Asian face from Canadian banknote? Racist, but government backed. Allowing Asian-Canadians to bask in the glory of being represented on the $100 bill but only if they are photographed adding value to the Canadian economy by doing research? Pure, unadulterated racism.
Bask in that,
zrox
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/image-of-asian-looking-woman-scrapped-from-new-100-bills-after-complaints/article4485307/
Bask in that,
zrox
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/image-of-asian-looking-woman-scrapped-from-new-100-bills-after-complaints/article4485307/
I hope that when the Canadian central bank decided on the policy of not highlighting specific minorities they intended to protect against racist designs. In it's current state it is too restrictive in allowing the individual depiction of people from different ethnic backgrounds. I think that for the time being the next $100 bill will have to have a group of minorities in order to include any at all. They should really reevaluate that policy...
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