In May 2025, Asian Raisins received multiple reports about the racist depiction of Chinese people in the book Mijn Jarige Stad (My City’s Birthday). This was a book the city of Amsterdam had gifted to over 60,000 children to mark the occasion of the city’s 750th
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“What’s for dinner?”, father Bart asks his wife Ilse as she walks into the kitchen. She sets down a big blue shopping bag on the table, “Asian”. As if by magic, the blinds come down and a flaming wok, neon lights and a golden maneki-neko appear
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An evening of karaoke sounds innocent enough. But what about when the whole experience is built on the exoticisation of a culture, without giving anything back to that very same community? The popular karaoke bar Duke of Tokyo, with branches in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam, is
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The Chinese Conflict, also known as "Trinta di Mei" (Thirty Days of May), was a tragic labour dispute during World War II in Curaçao. On 20 April 1942, fifteen Chinese seamen on strike were shot dead at Kamp Suffisant. What lies behind this relatively unknown event
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Lately, Asian Raisins has received multiple reports of racist incidents on trains, the perpetrators being either fellow passengers, or in some cases, NS conductors themselves. We have found that many reports of racism on trains are not adequately addressed by NS, leaving victims feeling unheard and
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In recent years, anti-racist activists have drawn attention to the term ‘Asian fever’ to denounce the sexual fetishisation of Asians. While this type of sexualised racism can manifest in various ways, it is often expressed in the exclusive pursuit of Asian women as a form of
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International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8th. On this day we commemorate milestones in the women’s rights movement and bring attention to various current women’s rights issues. Throughout history, women’s contributions to social justice, scientific development, and other causes have often been underappreciated, and
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In February 2022, Asian Raisins approached the Belgian media company De Chinezen for a discussion [article in Dutch] about their website design, which contained stark references to communist China. For instance, the site featured a bright red colour scheme with yellow stars, whilst their front page
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On November 21st, 2021, Asian Raisins tried to lobby for a name change concerning Filipinos cookies being sold in several shops in The Netherlands. Complaint letters were sent to the producer, Artiach, as well as the retailers Action, Jumbo, and SweetSupply (via bol.com). At the time,
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It has been known for a while that job applicants with non-Dutch names are less likely to be invited for a job interview (source: National Programme against Discrimination and Racism 2022 and Action plan labour market discrimination 2022-2025). A group of researchers from the Netherlands, Germany,
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