Catherine Larochelle, L’école du racisme. La construction de l’altérité à l’école québécoise (1830–1915)

Abstract

support. Cross-racial solidarities also emerged as events took place such as the Latino student sit-ins and the Columbus Day protest by Native American students. Students submitted a formal petition for a student centre in 1992 and started an Asian American-specific orientation program. Around the same time, students and supportive faculty and staff advocated for the first classes in Asian American studies. Early signs of change in 1996 included the hiring of a dedicated Assistant Dean of Students and two faculty positions for Asian American studies. The ribbon cutting for the long-awaited student centre took place in September 2005, and the Asian American Studies program became a department in 2012.While the legacy of student activism at UIUC is surely one of struggle and dedication, spanning some fifty years and worthy of note in its own right, there are other insights embedded in this particular history that Lee has ably told. The first is the salience of Asian American racial identity. Asian American student experiences have an integrity of their own, and parity in terms of the percentage of students compared to the overall population does not mean equity. The prevalence of the model minority myth can further mask the real needs of Asian American students, including the pernicious effects of the myth itself.Furthermore, Lee calls for an expansion for how we think about student activism. The strategies used by Asian American studies such as coalition building and legal arguments provide a more nuanced understanding of how change takes place in higher education. Asian American student experiences also highlight the particularity of their racial positioning and a fuller understanding of how whiteness operates. The UIUC case adds to our knowledge base of how racial dynamics in higher education need to move beyond a Black-white paradigm.As the current moment of anti-Asian violence demonstrates, there is a need to understand the particular histories of Asian Americans that stand distinct if related to other communities of colour. Lee provides a deeper dive into how students in the Midwest critically engaged and fostered community and coalition building in the push for racial and social justice -lessons that extend far beyond college campuses.