Shame on You, Bank of Canada!

I recently read a news article, and I must say, I'm really embarrassed to be a Canadian right about now. For a moment there I thought I was back in 1912! You can read the article in all it's glory here.

Martine Warren, an advisor for the Bank of Canada, has a close look at the bank's new $100 bill, Canada's first polymer bank note, in Toronto last November. The original image of the woman scientist on the banknote was altered after focus groups weighed in. (Nathan Denette/Canadian Press)

For those of you who don't want to read the article, it basically says that the Bank of Canada has revised the first draft of their $100 banknote from showing an "asian-looking" scientist to a caucasian scientist due to some negative feedback received from focus groups.

Some of the focus group members felt as though the asian scientist depicted the racial stereotype that asians excel at science and technology. Uuuuh... last time I checked people don't typically take offence to being reminded how they kick-ass at something. Now if the banknote showed a picture of an asian woman driving 30 km/h in a 50 zone then I could maybe see how some people would get a little cheesed.

Another comment made was about the "yellow-brown" colour of the note which "racialized" the bill. Yeah. Just like how the yellow colour of a traffic light really racializes an intersection. I can't believe I've been living my whole life up until now without ever reading into all the racializations that come with yellow-coloured objects. I've always just assumed that the yellow light meant "get the hell out of the intersection!"

The bank also reported that one person in Fredericton (A.K.A. the one place on earth whiter than Ireland) commented on how the asian lady simply doesn't represent Canada. Another person in Montreal (A.K.A. the little-bitch capital of the world) said that if you're going to show one ethnic group then you must show them all.

I think it's important to note at this point that they did NOT set up a focus group in Vancouver (A.K.A. Hong Kong the Sequel). What gives????? And since when do we care about offending white people in this country? Especially the french?! (I can say that because I'm french).

Also, since when do we have room on our doggamn money to show every single ethnicity we have living in Canada? Furthermore, since when did "white" become the catch-all/ "neutral" ethnicity that everyone can identify with? If the goal of the banknote is to portray every Canadian citizen equally, then I propose we depict a tanned, ethnically ambiguous, beer drinking, middle-aged, somewhat chubby androgynous person with a $200,000 mortgage in our bill design. That seems fair, no?

I'm a person of principles. If the bank note started off as a white person, I sincerely doubt anyone would've taken much notice. So why is the situation different because the first draft was an asian-looking lady?

Had the image originally been a white woman, you certainly wouldn't hear me saying "Hey, this image of a white person offends me! Change it to a fun-loving half asian/half white woman scientist eating Doritos. When I drop the dolla billz I wanna feel as though I'm looking into a mirror!"

In the end, the Bank of Canada should not have expected to please everyone with their bill design. What they probably should have expected, though, was the huge public backlash when they promptly caucasianized their banknote in response to the ludicrous criticism from their focus groups. The bottom line is they should have just left well enough alone.

Bank of Canada, I don't know who you are anymore.