My rating: 4/5 stars

What an eye-opening, well researched and informative read.

‘The Skin We’re In’ goes into great detail about racial discrimination and police brutality in Canada. What I found most interesting was learning about the history of Indigenous and black people in Canada (particularly Nova Scotia), from the first black settlers and the rationale behind the initial immigration laws. The other interesting aspects, were the opportunity to get a fuller picture of many “high profile” events that grazed Canadian media over the last couple of years: the protests to stop police presence in dominantly black high schools; ending the practice of “carding”; BLM Toronto making demands at the Pride parade; shootings of unarmed black men like Andrew Loku by police officers and much more.

What is abundantly clear from the start of this book is that there is a serious underrepresentation of racial issues and police brutality in Canadian media. I think it’s always been obvious that the underrepresentation exists, but Cole really highlights the extent of it. And it’s so hard to talk about a problem when the majority of people (white Canadians) think it doesn’t exist or worse, that it’s not that bad in comparison to the U.S. Which in itself is another issue because Canada is constantly praised in comparison to the U.S – as if that is the only valid benchmark to measure success or failure.

Prior to reading this, I was familiar with Desmond Cole in the sense that I’ve always associated his name and image with black activism in Canada. I’ve watched and listened to some of his interviews but I’d never actually read any of his writing. There is a special kind of feeling you get from reading a book that is as concise and digestible as this one. With every chapter, through concrete examples, Cole successfully highlights the fact that Institutional racism is ver much alive even in a country as seemingly as progressive as ours.

This is a book I think everyone should read, especially all Canadians.