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The Skin We're In

The Skin We're In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power is a book by Desmond Cole.

Desmond Cole

CBC Books Posted: Jan 28, 2020 10:25 AM EST | Last Updated: September 10, 2021

In May 2015, the cover story ofToronto Lifemagazine shook Canada's largest city to its core. Desmond Cole's "The Skin I'm In" exposed the racist practices of the Toronto police force, detailing the dozens of times Cole had been stopped and interrogated under the controversial practice of carding. The story quickly came to national prominence, went on to win a number of National Magazine Awards and catapulted 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: the devastating effects of racist policing; the hopelessness produced by an education system that expects little of its black students and withholds from them the resources they need to succeed more fully; the heartbreak of those vulnerable before the child welfare system and those separated from their families by discriminatory immigration laws.

Both Cole's activism and journalism find vibrant expression in his first book,The Skin We're In. Puncturing once and for all the bubble of Canadian smugness and nave assumptions of a post-racial nation, Cole chronicles just one year2017in the struggle against racism in this country. It was a year that saw calls for tighter borders when African 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 theToronto 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 TPS meeting, Cole challenged the board publicly, addressing rumours of a police cover-up of 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, handcuffed and flanked by officers, out of the meeting fortified the distrust between the city's Black community and its police force.

In a month-by-month chronicle, Cole locates the deep cultural, historical and political roots of each event so that what emerges is a personal, painful and comprehensive picture of entrenched, systemic inequality. Urgent, controversial and unsparingly honest,The Skin We're Inis 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. (FromDoubleday Canada)

The Skin We're Inwon the 2020 Toronto Book Award.

DesmondCole is ajournalist, radio hostand activist based inToronto.His writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, Now Magazineandthe Walrus.The Skin We're Inis his first book.

Why Desmond Cole wrote The Skin We're In

"They say that you should write what you know. And I did that. A lot of times, as a journalist who is trying to make a living, you don't get to dwell on really interesting or important stories because no one will pay you to do that. So writing this book was an opportunity for me to go back to a lot of stories that I was experiencing throughout the year 2017 and one chapter for 2013 and to be rigorous about my investigative journalism.

Writing this book was a chance for me to go into deeper detail into the types of stories that often go underreported.- Desmond Cole

"Writing this book was a chance for me to go into deeper detail into the types of stories that often go underreported."

Interviews with Desmond Cole

The Skin We're In, a new book by award-winning journalist, activist and author Desmond Cole, is a look at racism in Canada.

5 years ago

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The Skin We're In, a new book by award-winning journalist, activist and author Desmond Cole, is a look at racism in Canada and its lasting impact. It's a story of confrontation, sometimes in public meetings and sometimes using the written word, but also one of listening and bearing witness. The former Toronto Star columnist has written before about racial profiling by police in that city and its effect on his life. In this book, he digs more deeply into the topic and challenges Canada to make some significant changes. Watch Adrian Harewood's interview with Desmond Cole on the program Our Ottawa.