Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Skin We're in: A Year of Black Resistance and Power

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The Skin We're in: A Year of Black Resistance and Power by Desmond Cole

12 reviews

vanesst's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

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spec_tacles's review

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.75

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demonbaby's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

A necessary read for all Canadians to understand the state of Black and Indigenous peoples in this country. Cole intertwines personal experiences, historical context, and hard-hitting journalism to illustrate what it means to be Black in Canada.

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mandkips's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

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angelinazahajko's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

3.75 stars

the skin we’re in by Desmond Cole serves a very important purpose: to dismantle the widespread illusion that Canada is post-racial and does not support white supremacist structures and ideals like our Southern neighbours. It’s bold and punchy; it’s a wake-up call for Canadians and a love letter to Canada’s Black activists.

It is undeniable that Cole succeeded in his goal of dismantling Canadian illusions about anti-black racism. While I was aware of many of the cases within this book, I was also unaware of the details — gory details that Cole does not shy away from and add power to his narrative. for this, I give Cole massive credit; however, where this book fell flat for me was it’s structure. it looks genius on paper: each chapter dedicated to a month of black resistance in Toronto? so creative! but, besides months June-October, I felt that this structure actually hindered the book’s flow because often there either a) wasn’t enough to talk about in a month, resulting in a couple unrelated stories put into a chapter or b) the event that did occur required a lot of context that took you out of the action in order to explain. I wanted to be enamoured by this book but, by the time I finished it, I was okay with my reading experience being over.

I still would argue that this book is essential reading for GTA residents who buy into the delusion outlined earlier, especially because there are so little books that exist on anti-black racism in Canada compared to the American literature. for me, this might just be a classic case of unjustifiably high expectations and that’s okay!

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caelinsullivan's review

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challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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whatcassiedid's review

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

A very succint, well researched, absolutely infuriating look at a year of racism in Canada. Must read.

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ferretspies's review

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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amberinbookland's review

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challenging informative medium-paced

3.0

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sunsetcity's review

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

This book was super informative and really opened my eyes to the racial discrimination in Canada. I was never one of those people who thought Canada had no racism or problems, but there were so many cases and incidents that I have NEVER heard of and I have lived here my entire life.

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