The now notorious Maclean’s article “Too Asian?” from the magazine’s 2010 campus issue has sparked a national furor about race in Canadian higher education. Since the founding of the federal policy of multiculturalism, Canadians have prided themselves on their ability to integrate diversity into a broader multicultural environment, but the often heated discussions about race point to fissures in this national project. This collection uses the controversy about the Maclean’s article as a flashpoint to interrogate issues about race and representation on Canadian campuses and what it means for students and learning across the country.

“Jeet Heer is a cultural journalist and academic who divides his time between Toronto and Regina. He has written for many publications including the Globe and Mail, Slate.com, the Boston Globe, the Walrus, the American Prospect, the Comics Journal, the Virginia Quarterly Review and the Guardian of London. He has co-edited eight books and been a contributing editor to another eight volumes. With Kent Worcester, Jeet co-edited A Comics Studies Reader (University Press of Mississippi), which won the Peter C. Rollins Book Award given annually to the best book in American Studies or Cultural Studies. He's been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. His articles have been anthologized in both The Best American Comics Criticism (Fantagraphics) and The Best Canadian Essays collection for 2012. With Chris Ware, Jeet continues to edit the Walt and Skeezix series from Drawn and Quarterly, which is now entering its sixth volume.

Jeet Heer's profile page

Michael C.K. Ma is professor of Criminology at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and a board member of the Chinese Canadian National Council—Toronto Chapter.

Michael Ma's profile page

Davina Bhandar is a professor of Canadian Studies at Trent University.

Davina Bhandar's profile page

RJ Gilmour holds a PhD in History from York University.

R.J. Gilmour's profile page

For courses that deal with multiculturalism, race and ethnic relations, equity studies or any of the applied sociology courses that involve immigration, assimilation, prejudice and discrimination, this collage meets and exceeds expectations.

College Quarterly

An intelligent, scholarly, and sanity-restoring response to Maclean’s Magazine’s ‘Too Asian?’–one of the shabbiest and laziest pieces in the history of Canadian magazine journalism.

Toronto Star

‘Too Asian?’: Racism, Privilege, and Post-Secondary Education’ boldly advances the dialogue around the ways race functions in Canada; and, as it should, it regards this conversation as a prerequisite for building a more just and civilized society.

rabble.ca

‘Too Asian?’ is an important commentary on the ways that power and ideology are inextricably bound to the politics of race and identity within and beyond Canadian institutes of post-secondary education. This collection highlights some of the challenges that we must continually work to overcome, and applauds the collective work that has already begun.

CAUT/ACPPU Bulletin