Anti-Asian? Canada’s new $100 bill criticized as racist

The Bank of Canada wants to introduce new bills that are harder for counterfeits to copy, but the draft images on the proposed new $100 bill has gotten the flak for being racist. Businessweek reported that the first image on the bill was criticized for featuring an Asian woman looking into a microscope. A focus group reportedly said this reinforced the stereotype that Asians excel in science, while others questioned why other ethnicities were not represented. When the bank released the bill — this time, with the new image of the Caucasian woman — the Chinese groups got mad at the monetary authorities for reportedly not representing minorities on currency. The central bank finally said in a statement it will not redesigning the note, but apologized for those who were offended not by the image but by the bank’s handling of the issue.

Read more on Businessweek.