Title: The Skin We're In
Author: Desmond Cole
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Year: 2020
220 pages
From the Back: Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naïve assumptions of a post-racial nation, Desmond Cole chronicles just one year - 2017 - in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when Black refugees braved frigid temperatures to cross into Manitoba from the States, Indigenous land and water protectors resisting the celebration of Canada's 150th birthday, police across the country rallying around an officer accused of murder, and more.
Month-by-month, Cole creates a comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality. Urgent, controversial, and unsparingly honest, The Skin We're In is destined to become a vital text for anti-racist and social justice movements in Canada, as well as a potent antidote to the all-too-present complacency of many white Canadians.
Personal Thoughts: The Skin We're In is an amazingly powerful book. Cole provides excellent insight into the many events that happened throughout 2017, events that have significantly shifted the public viewpoint of racism in North America, events that although the public was aware occurred, likely aren't aware of just how much hate and disregard for human life lies behind what happened. If you had any doubt about the racism that exists in our world, that doubt will be obliterated after reading this book. Personally, I think The Skin We're In should become part of our school curriculum so that maybe, just maybe, the youth of today will be able to alter the trajectory of our future because it is only through the education and awareness of systemic racism that change will begin.
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