The Skin We're In
A Year of Black Resistance and Power
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The Skin We're In
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Narrated by:
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Desmond Cole
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Written by:
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Desmond Cole
About this listen
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 CanadaYou may also enjoy...
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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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Brittany Jakubiec
- 2021-03-21
A must read
If you live in in Canada, this is a must read book. The author covers incredibly important topics ranging from police violence against Black people to immigration and deportation issues that Black people experience here in Canada.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Paula Correa
- 2021-03-20
A must read!
Incredibly well written! An eye opening experience. I'm glad I picked up this book to read.
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- Anonymous User
- 2020-07-08
More Canadian-based Content Needed Like This!
Desmond Cole is and should go down in Canadian history as one of the most affluent, provocative and inspiring journalists and activists of all time. This is an intense read that leads you through just one year of what it's like to have to fight against anti-Black and anti-Indiginous racism in Canada. People assume we don't have a problem with racism like they do in the U.S. but this book pointedly and effectively exposes that myth for what it is. An oppressive and systemic lie that we as white descendants of settlers who stole this land, continue to reap vast benefits from. This book should be a staple in every Canadian anti-oppresion person's library. Thank you to Desmond and to all the Black, Indigenous and people of colour who agreed to allow him to share their stories with us. May we fight alongside and behind you for true equity here in this country.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Robin
- 2021-04-11
Very informative
It’s well written and tastefully delivered. I’m so sorry all that happened. I would like “Black life’s matter “ to be “All lives matter” because they do.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- JMS
- 2020-06-29
Rethink your assumptions about racism in Canada
Do you believe that #racism isn’t a problem in Canada, or that it’s a relatively benign issue compared to racism in the United States, or other countries? If so, Desmond Cole may change your mind. Cole’s stories about his personal experience of anti-Black racism made me uncomfortable at times, but that’s a good thing. Complete podcast review: https://anchor.fm/audiobookreviews
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
- denise
- 2020-02-27
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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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 2021-02-03
For anyone who still thinks racism doesn’t exist in Canada
An incredible curation of events about police brutality and discrimination told with the journalistic style of Desmond Cole. This is an eye-opener for so many non-Black Canadians who don’t experience racism first hand and think that it only exists south of our border.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 2020-10-10
Every Canadian has to listen to this book
I deeply appreciate all the work that Desmond Cole does. I learned so much from this book - This is a book all Canadians should read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Briana
- 2021-03-04
Amazing
It opened my eyes. Desmond has a great voice to listen to and the book was well written
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