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Policing Black Lives
- State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present
- Narrated by: Marcia Johnson
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Categories: Politics & Social Sciences, Social Sciences
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How to Be an Antiracist
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In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes listeners through a widening circle of antiracist ideas - from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilites - that will help listeners see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.
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For decades, Indigenous women and girls have gone missing or been found murdered along an isolated stretch of highway in northwestern British Columbia. The highway is known as the Highway of Tears, and it has come to symbolize a national crisis. Highway of Tears is a piercing exploration of our ongoing failure to provide justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, and testament to their families and communities' unwavering determination to find it.
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White Fragility
- Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
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Tanya Talaga, the best-selling author of Seven Fallen Feathers and the 2017-2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy, calls attention to an urgent global humanitarian crisis among Indigenous Peoples - youth suicide.
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Important Read!
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Peace and Good Order
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In this direct, concise, and essential volume, Harold R. Johnson examines the justice system's failures to deliver "peace and good order" to Indigenous people. He explores the part that he understands himself to have played in that mismanagement, drawing on insights he has gained from the experience; insights into the roots and immediate effects of how the justice system has failed Indigenous people, in all the communities in which they live; and insights into the struggle for peace and good order for Indigenous people now.
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Book for these Times
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The New Jim Crow
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Seldom does a book have the impact of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow. Since it was first published in 2010, it has been cited in judicial decisions and has been adopted in campus-wide and community-wide reads; it helped inspire the creation of the Marshall Project and the new $100 million Art for Justice Fund; it has been the winner of numerous prizes, including the prestigious NAACP Image Award; and it has spent nearly 250 weeks on the New York Times best seller list.
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Stats that speak
- By kary on 2018-09-09
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Had It Coming
- What's Fair in the Age of #MeToo?
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- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
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Had It Coming picks up where the Unfounded series left off. Doolittle brings a personal voice to what has been a turning point for most women: the #MeToo movement and its aftermath. The world is now increasingly aware of the pervasiveness of rape culture in which powerful men got away with sexual assault and harassment for years. Had It Coming is not a diatribe or manifesto, but a nuanced and informed look at how attitudes around sexual behaviour have changed and still need to change.
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A definite must listen!
- By Green Isis on 2020-11-26
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On Fire
- The Burning Case for a Green New Deal
- Written by: Naomi Klein
- Narrated by: Naomi Klein, Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than 20 years, Naomi Klein has been the foremost chronicler of the economic war waged on both people and planet - and the champion of a sweeping environmental agenda with stability and justice at its center. In lucid dispatches from the frontlines - from the ghostly Great Barrier Reef, to the annual smoke-choked skies of the Pacific Northwest, to post-hurricane Puerto Rico, to a Vatican attempting an unprecedented "ecological conversion".
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One of most important reads (listens) for our time
- By Anonymous User on 2019-10-15
Publisher's Summary
Delving behind Canada’s veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-Blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms, and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides listeners with the first comprehensive account of nearly 400 years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization, and punishment of Black lives in Canada.
While highlighting the ubiquity of Black resistance, Policing Black Lives traces the still-living legacy of slavery across multiple institutions, shedding light on the state’s role in perpetuating contemporary Black poverty and unemployment, racial profiling, law enforcement violence, incarceration, immigration detention, deportation, exploitative migrant labor practices, disproportionate child removal, and low graduation rates.
Emerging from a critical race feminist framework that insists that all Black lives matter, Maynard’s intersectional approach to anti-Black racism addresses the unique and understudied impacts of state violence as it is experienced by Black women, Black people with disabilities, as well as queer, trans, and undocumented Black communities.
A call-to-action, Policing Black Lives urges listeners to work toward dismantling structures of racial domination and re-imagining a more just society.
Bespeak Audio Editions brings Canadian voices to the world with audiobook editions of some of the country’s greatest works of literature, performed by Canadian actors.
What the critics say
"Grounded in an impressive and expansive treatment of Black Canadian history, Maynard has written a powerful account of state anti-Black violence in Canada. Empirically rich and theoretically nimble, this work is an outstanding contribution to Black Canadian Studies." (Barrington Walker, Queen’s University)
"Robyn Maynard’s meticulously-researched and compelling analysis of state violence challenges prevailing narratives of Canadian multiculturalism and inclusion by examining how structures of racism and ideologies of gender are complexly anchored in global histories of colonization and slavery. This book should be read not only by those who have a specific interest in Canadian histories and social justice movements but by anyone interested in the abolitionist and revolutionary potential of the Black Lives Matters movement more broadly." (Angela Y. Davis)
"To understand this moment in Canada when Black communities are asserting that Black Lives really do matter, readers need this book." (Sylvia D. Hamilton)
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What listeners say about Policing Black Lives
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- YC
- 2020-05-30
Great book! It was very detailed and eye opening!
It is a must-read for all Canandians no matter the background. I salute the meticulous research methode that the author Robyn Maynard used to gather the data for this project. I also congratulate the author for her ability to simplify the complex infornation contained within the book! I strongly recommend this book!
3 people found this helpful
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- MB
- 2020-10-08
Sobering, sad and eye opening
I was a relatively naive (on this topic) 57 year old white Canadian woman who learned a lot about Canada and about “the black’ perspective in Canada. by listening to this book. I didn’t always agree with the author’s liberal use of the words violent and violence, however, I didn’t let it stop me from listening to the hard stories and hearing and gaining a better “understanding” of the problems faced by black Canadians. This book was recommended by LeadNow for those who want to learn more about being antiracist instead of just striving to be non-racist. Reading or listening to this book is a good place to start.
1 person found this helpful
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- Jim R
- 2020-08-19
Couldn't get past two chapters.
I bought this book to learn more about the situation that inspired the BLM movement, and the plight of our indigenous people. What I got was depressed. A summary after two excruciating chapters? No person of colour or indigenous person, has ever had a good day, ever, in the history of mankind. But especially in this hell hole we call Canada. I'm putting it down, for good.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2020-08-11
Every Canadian should read this incredibly important book
From slavery to mass incarceration to segregation to the racist harm perpetuated by the child welfare system, to police brutality, to the school to prison pipeline, these are all things that Canadians are regularly told are facets of racism in America, not something we deal with here, since we celebrate our multiculturalism, right? No. All the things I listed above are just *some* of the topics covered in this book, which explicitly looks at all the ways black people and black bodies are policed in Canada. It’s an important book that dispels a lot of our national myths and sense of superiority over our southern neighbours, as well as dispelling a lot of racist myths that white Canadians like myself absorbed by living in a nation that privileges white lives and white culture over all others. We need to challenge those racial assumptions and unconscious biases we have in order to do the work to dismantle these systems of oppression and support the incredibly brave work being done by BIPOC in Canada to create a more equitable and just society that addresses all the systemic harm done I can not recommend this book enough.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 2020-08-06
A Must Read
You MUST listen to this if you have been through the Canadian public school system. Canadians are taught that we are a cut above the rest when it comes to how we (colonialists) have treated other ethnicities and that we exist in an ethnically egalitarian castle on the hill. Listen. Learn the truth.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 2020-08-05
good introduction to canadian anti-black racism
A well narrated, brilliantly written and very organized canadian perspective on anti black racism throughout our history.
1 person found this helpful
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- Robert Howe
- 2020-07-21
Eye opening!
Wow! The history and continued racist policies that are ongoing in Canada is incredible and injust. A a white man, I have always looked at Canada as being better than the United States in regards to racism, and had truly closed my eyes and remained happily ignorant to the travesties that were and are happening all around me. This book will play an instrumental part in how I move forward in voting and pushing for changes in policies. I recognize that I have truly been a part of the problem because of my inaction and acceptance of what the government has told me. Hopefully more will read and listen to these powerful words so that they too may have their eyes opened.
1 person found this helpful
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- June
- 2020-07-09
a relevant reading to understand systematic racism
A great book to deep dive into the roots of systematic racism and state violence against black people (with some comments on racism against indigenous and non white folks) the author is aware of the need of an intersectional approach, including elements like gender, disabilities, immigration status, poverty and queernes into the analysis. A relevant reading to understand better racial dynamics in canada and to challenge our current state.
1 person found this helpful
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- Lynette
- 2020-07-06
Must Read/Listen!
This is necessary learning for Canadians, to understand the structures and systems of oppressions facing Black folx in our country. We are not immune to systemic racism, even though we like to think we are because we're Canadian!
1 person found this helpful
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- Mitchell Bonk
- 2020-07-13
Eye Opening
Really hard to see the veil lifted seeing the true treatment of Black Lives in Canada. I’m left sad and upset at the injustices by our so called multicultural country.
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- Liz
- 2021-01-22
Powerful
Very thorough and well researched history of racism in North America and especially Canada. Difficult to listen to at times because of how painful and continuous the atrocities are in a time where I think many white people want to believe we’ve made progress. So important to keep listening.