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Reviews tagging 'Death'
The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power by Desmond Cole, Desmond Cole
10 reviews
siobhanward's review against another edition
4.0
I especially appreciated the context Cole gave to all of the stories he told. The statistics on school suspensions were sobering, and his comparison of the Toronto Star's reaction to his activism versus the activism of a white colleague in a similar position was especially interesting. Cole really knew what he intended when he wrote this, and I appreciated how well it was written.
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder
vanesst's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Police brutality
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Colonisation, Classism, and Deportation
Minor: Sexual assault and Slavery
cjsays's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Murder
spec_tacles's review against another edition
4.75
Graphic: Physical abuse, Racism, and Violence
Minor: Child death, Death, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
readsandrants's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Islamophobia, Murder, and Sexual harassment
tachyondecay's review against another edition
5.0
White supremacy is always keeping score. The math is simple, as is the assumption of cause and effect: Black people get caught by the police so often because we break the law so often. Dominator culture tells Black folks that we not only bring this pain upon ourselves, but that we’re so irresponsible we blame our suffering on someone else, jealously landing on white people.
This chapter is about the fallout around a Peel Regional Police officer handcuffing a 6-year-old Black girl at a Peel District School Board school in September 2016. Cole explores how the media covers the investigation and the girl’s mother. He shows us (white people) how our desire to see the police as forces of good often means we need to justify their actions as a matter of course. If the officer handcuffed this girl, she must have done something wrong. He wouldn’t have handcuffed her otherwise. (This whole situation reminds me of how, last year, Vancouver Police responded to a call from Bank of Montreal and handcuffed a Heiltsuk man and his granddaughter because the bank was suspicious about their desire to open a bank account.) And if we do eventually admit that the victim didn’t do anything to deserve this mistreatment, we write it off as a single “bad apple” of a cop.
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Mental illness, Violence, Grief, and Murder
Minor: Genocide
amberinbookland's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, and Murder
sunsetcity's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder
readalongwithnat's review against another edition
4.5
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Blood, Police brutality, and Murder
liteartha's review against another edition
white canadians have a massive problem of pretending we don’t have the same problems that exist south of the border. nothing has ever highlighted that fact to me more clearly than first hearing of the murder of a mentally ill Black man committed by the police — which occurred within a few minutes’ walking distance from my home — in this book. that is a massive failure both of mine, for not being better informed, and of local media and culture for not shining the same light it does on killings of this kind in the US
canadians, by and large, do not talk about this. canadians point the finger at the states and disparage their violently racist law enforcement while voicing relief that “things are much better here” as if we aren’t two sides of the same coin
canada is a deeply racist, ableist, queer- and transphobic country. our police are the perpetrators of the same violence we scorn in the US while ignoring at home. the intersectional lens this book employs while still remaining focused on the Black experience within canada was a revelation to me and will inform how i seek, receive, and act on news going forward. cole's journalistic background lends itself extremely well to this format, and his narration of the audiobook is clear and compelling. i can’t recommend this more highly
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia and Transphobia
Minor: Torture