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  • In the Black

  • My Life
  • Written by: B. Denham Jolly
  • Narrated by: Tim Puckett
  • Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (56 ratings)

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In the Black cover art

In the Black

Written by: B. Denham Jolly
Narrated by: Tim Puckett
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Publisher's Summary

A remarkable memoir about achieving prosperity in the face of relentless prejudice.

In the Black traces B. Denham Jolly's personal and professional struggle for a place in a country where Black Canadians have faced systematic discrimination. He arrived from Jamaica to attend university in the mid-1950s and worked as a high school teacher before going into the nursing and retirement-home business. Though he was ultimately successful in his business ventures, Jolly faced both overt and covert discrimination, which led him into social activism. The need for a stronger voice for the Black community fueled Jolly's 12-year battle to get a license for a Black-owned radio station in Toronto. At its launch in 2001, Flow 93.5 became the model for urban music stations across the country, helping to launch the careers of artists like Drake.

Jolly chronicles not only his own journey; he tells the story of a generation of activists who worked to reshape the country into a more open and just society. While celebrating these successes, In the Black also measures the distance Canada still has to travel before we reach our stated ideals of equality.

©2017 B. Denham Jolly (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about In the Black

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Canadian history that we all need to know

The narrator does such a great job it is easy to forget that he isn't the author. You feel like you are sitting a room with someone recounting their amazing life. Canada has a lot to be proud about but also has tried to sweep a lot of unpleasantness under the rug. It is time that we shed light into our darkness and acknowledge that we aren't the shining star in the north. This way maybe we can finally become what we try to tell the world we are. Thank you Audible for featuring reads like this. #Audible1

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8 people found this helpful

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Thank You!

I’m a white Canadian. I love diversity but had a sense We had race issues. I so appreciate this history. Very insightful!

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7 people found this helpful

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Should be required reading in schools across Canada

As a white Canadian I have always believed that I was not part of the problem of racism. I realized in reading this, I was blissfully ignorant of what was in my own back yard. We need to realize that racism flourishes though this ignorance.
OUR SCHOOLS MUST teach truths about our own complicity in allowing systemic racism and atrocities to occur. We must teach the next generation how to support and build each other up and NOT repeat gross error of our past. We must hold leaders accountable as well as look inside our own action. Silence is the same as assent.

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2 people found this helpful

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  • 2021-03-06

in black

loved it.
narration was excellent.
great insight into the canadian system and its relations with black people.


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If you are a Canadian, read this book.

In The Black provides a very clear, insightful, and captivating look at racism in Canada over the last 60 years.

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The untold Canadian history.

Canadian systemic and cultural racism is more often then not minimized and its existence denied especially when American history is considered. This book sheds light and confirms what many know but choose to turn a blind eye to, that the ever so polite Canadians were just as passionately exclusionist and deliberately racist. Canadian racism has always had a certain degree of elegance about it. As it is not common for someone to be boldly, rudely or visibly exclusionist or racist. Unlike the violent Americans, Canadians had no need for violence as they opted to exclude none whites. This approach saved Canada from the needless enforcement of white superiority. Until today it is easy to find Canadian towns and cities where visible minorities are not welcomed. It is not an accident that Canadian conservatives or those who claim to be "true Canadians" oppose immigration and often view immigrants and visible minorities with a certain degree of envy and resentment. This story and book tell the story of many hard working immigrants who have earned their privilege with honest hard work despite white Canadian's attempts.

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unexpectedly good

Did not realize this book would touch on many influences in my own upbringing in Canada

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History sorely needed to be known

A great story of experiences in Canada, sad I didn’t know about this man earlier in my life

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