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  • The Skin We're In

  • A Year of Black Resistance and Power
  • Written by: Desmond Cole
  • Narrated by: Desmond Cole
  • Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (669 ratings)

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The Skin We're In

Written by: Desmond Cole
Narrated by: Desmond Cole
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Publisher's Summary

National Best Seller

Winner of the 2020 Toronto Book Award

A bracing, provocative, and perspective-shifting audiobook from one of Canada's most celebrated and uncompromising writers, Desmond Cole. The Skin We're In will spark a national conversation, influence policy, and inspire activists.

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. 

The year also witnessed the profound personal and professional ramifications of Desmond Cole’s unwavering determination to combat injustice. In April, Cole disrupted a Toronto police board meeting by calling for the destruction of all data collected through carding. Following the protest, Cole, a columnist with the Toronto Star, was summoned to a meeting with the paper’s opinions editor and informed that his activism violated company policy. Rather than limit his efforts defending Black lives, Cole chose to sever his relationship with the publication. Then in July, at another police board meeting, Cole challenged the board to respond to accusations of a police cover-up in the brutal beating of Dafonte Miller by an off-duty police officer and his brother. When Cole refused to leave the meeting until the question was publicly addressed, he was arrested. The image of Cole walking out of the meeting, handcuffed and flanked by officers, fortified the distrust between the city’s Black community and its police force. 

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.

©2020 Desmond Cole (P)2020 Doubleday Canada

What the critics say

2020, Toronto Book Award, Winner

2021, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, Short-listed

2021. OLA Evergreen Award, Nominated

2021, Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing, Short-listed

"In The Skin We're In, Desmond Cole offers us not only analysis of one year of anti-blackness in the lands we currently call Canada: he also recovers disappeared histories of Black resistance, gives richly deserved credit to Black LGBTQ+ activists, shows solidarity with disabled and Indigenous folks, and, most importantly, reminds us of the power of Black genius and Black joy. This smart, powerful, essential book is an act of radical generosity - one we should all be grateful to receive, hold, share and revisit." (Alicia Elliott, author of A Mind Spread Out on the Ground)

"Desmond Cole systematically dismantles any lingering illusions of Canada as a beacon of racial benevolence by exposing the multiple forms of state violence facing Black peoples of all ages and genders. His text, further, compellingly highlights the ongoing refusal of Canada's Black diaspora to submit to conditions of subjugation, bringing to light both historical and contemporary legacies of rebellion. A powerful read." (Robyn Maynard, author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present)

What listeners say about The Skin We're In

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A must read!

Everyone living in Canada - especially Ontario - needs to hear this book! Thank you Desmond for writing it!

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7 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent - required reading for white settlers

Cole's book was ever better than I hoped. Inciseve, reflective, well-researched, and, amazingly hopeful.

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5 people found this helpful

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  • AR
  • 2020-05-25

For Canadians Learning & Unlearning

Heartbreaking and inspiring accounts of the struggles of Black people, as well as Indigenous & POC, on the lands that Canada occupies. Devastating history, both recent and further back to the country’s founding, that all Canadians need to learn if we are going to be part of righting wrongs and creating a safe and just society for Black Canadians. Learning the details of how activists like Black Lives Matter took action to achieve change must inform our anti-racist work. Canadians need to abandon politeness & niceness as a national identity and do some actual work. Hearing the author’s reading adds to the experience.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very informative.

learnt alot about the institutional racism that exist here in Canada that we are afraid to talk about.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

A must read. Especially if your Canadian.

I should say especially if you are Canadian and especially if you say "but that doesn't happen here". I recently sat in on one of the 6 consultations my Canadian municipality put on to talk about anti-black racism. This particular one was about municipal services. Adults my age shared their lived experiences of treatment at local libraries and community centres, places I often frequented at the exact same time. I am ashamed I did not see the differences. How I wasn't followed or asked repeatedly why I was there. Or told to quiet down or leave right after my session. I hung out for hours, probably louder than I should have been. There is so much work to do, and this book is still so relevant - a great place to start.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

Relevant

This book is a must read given the current climate of the world. Many of us Canadians feel privileged to live in a country we deem as welcoming and unbiased, but thus book helps educate the listener on the systemic problems many believe to only be an American issue. Passionate stories of those who stood up for not only themselves and others oppressed by the system inspire the listener to take action and help fight for change

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting and Informative

I learned lots about Canada's perpetuation of racism and racist policies. I appreciate Desmond's perspective.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Eye opening

loved this book that clearly laid example after example of canadians and the canadian government continually mistreating their bipoc people. it definitely made me check, acknowledge my white privilege. very informative.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • LJB
  • 2020-06-10

a must read

this book is an important read for anyone. it's tells the truth about Canada and what's really going on behind our polite and friendly facade.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Numbers and facts for mind and heart.

Authentic narration. My white skin is waking up to its priviledge after that. Extremely well supported data that moved my heart and head.

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