I bought and read The Skin We’re In in order to better understand racism in Canada. I’ve had white friends say they don’t think systemic racism and white privilege exist in Canada. I simply don’t understand how someone can think that. Just because YOU haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist! If you don’t think systemic racism exists in Canada, read this review, then read the book. Educate yourself. I want to learn as much as I can so when I speak up against racism I will have the confidence I need to stick to my guns and not let anyone make me doubt myself.

About The Book 📚

Title: The Skin We’re In

Author: Desmond Cole

Publication Date: January 2020

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

Suggested Reader Age: There is descriptive violence, but I strongly feel that most teens can (and should) read this.

Genre: Nonfiction, Canadian, Racism, Social Justice, Autobiography (Memoir)

Synopsis

“In his 2015 cover story for Toronto Life magazine, Desmond Cole exposed the racist actions of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times he had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The story quickly came to national prominence, shaking the country to its core and catapulting its author into the public sphere. Cole used his newfound profile to draw insistent, unyielding attention to the injustices faced by Black Canadians on a daily basis.

Both Cole’s activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book, The Skin We’re In. Puncturing the bubble of Canadian smugness and naive assumptions of a post-racial nation, 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.”

About The Author

“Desmond Cole is a Canadian journalist, activist, author, and broadcaster who lives in Toronto, Ontario. Cole hosts a weekly radio program on Newstalk 1010. He was previously a columnist for the Toronto Star and has written for The Walrus, NOW Magazine, Torontoist, The Tyee, Ethnic Aisle, Toronto Life, and BuzzFeed.”
http://www.twitter.com/desmondcole

My Review

“The year was full of painful reminders that Black people are not wanted in Canada, that this is a land stolen from Indigenous peoples and ultimately colonized – just like my parents’ native land of Sierra Leone – by white British settlers.”

› The Skin We’re In is a tough book to read, I was crying by page 2. It took me two weeks to read it because it hurt my heart. It took me two months to wrap my mind around writing a review. This won’t be my typical review. I’ll be sharing links to the stories of the people Cole talks about in an effort to ensure their deaths are not in vain.

› The first person Cole talks about is Andrew Loku, a Black man with mental illness shot and killed by a police officer. https://nationalpost.com/news/toronto/the-life-and-bloody-death-of-andrew-loku

› John Samuels was attacked by police in his art gallery.

“The police attack on John was calculated and it fits the pattern of disproportionate uses of force against Black people in general.”

› https://canadianart.ca/news/community-concerned-after-toronto-gallery-co-owner-tasered-by-police/

“The Canadian government and its institutions are the products of a white supremacist ideology that claims this land as the property of a white European colonial government. To maintain its stolen land, the government is engaged in an ongoing, centuries-long genocide of Indigenous peoples. Our government is designed to assimilate or eradicate Indigenous peoples, and unfortunately it works exactly as it was designed to.”

› A 6-year-old Black girl was handcuffed by police while at school!
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/human-rights-tribunal-peel-police-girl-handcuffed-1.5483456

› “In 2016 the Halifax Regional School Board reported that 22.5 per cent of the students it suspended were Black, though they made up only 7.8 per cent of the school population.”

› Cole talks about the death of Abdirahman Abdi, and recently Const. Daniel Montsion was found not guilty of Abdi’s death. Another death of a Black person with mental illness in Canada. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/abdirahman-abdi-protest-mcnabb-park-1.5775768

› The SIU (Special Investigations Unit) was founded in 1990. “The SIU is a civilian law enforcement agency, independent of the police, that conducts criminal investigations into circumstances involving police and civilians that have resulted in serious injury, death or allegations of sexual assault.”
https://www.siu.on.ca/en/what_we_do.php

› Since the SIU was founded, they have laid criminal charges against 15 police officers in Ottawa and none of them have been convicted.

› According to Cole, “Between 2007 and 2017, the SIU conducted 144 investigations but issued press releases for only 45 of them, meaning that about 70 per cent of investigations into serious crimes involving the police were never made public.”

› Pierre Coriolan: Another man with mental illness killed by Canadian police.

› Before reading The Skin We’re In I didn’t know “carding” was even a thing. Cole talks about the Toronto Star report into carding: Known to Police: Toronto police stop and document black and brown people far more than whites.

“How many young people did police document under the guise of operating a community program?”

IDLE NO MORE CALLS ON ALL PEOPLE
TO JOIN IN A PEACEFUL REVOLUTION

To honour Indigenous sovereignty
And to protect the land & water & sky
https://idlenomore.ca/

Those Who Take Us Away

Abusive Policing and Failures in Protection of Indigenous Women and Girls in Northern British Columbia, Canada
https://www.hrw.org/report/2013/02/13/those-who-take-us-away/abusive-policing-and-failures-protection-indigenous-women

› You may have seen Dafonte Miller‘s case on TV. In June of this year, the police officer who beat him up was found guilty of assault (although his brother was found not guilty), almost four years after Miller was beaten and arrested for no reason.

My Rating ★★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• Well-written, poignant. A must-read for all Canadians.