The Skin We're In
A Year of Black Resistance and Power
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Narrated by:
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Desmond Cole
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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.
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Critic reviews
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)
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Righteous Troublemakers shines a light on everyday people called to do extraordinary things—like Pauli Murray, whose early work inspired Thurgood Marshall, Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus months before Rosa Parks did the same, and Gwen Carr, whose private pain in losing her son Eric Garner stoked her public activism against police brutality. Sharpton also gives his personal take on more widely known individuals, revealing overlooked details, historical connections, and a perspective informed by years of working in the social justice movement.
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Thank God for this book knowledge is power
- By JOAN REID on 02-23-22
By: Al Sharpton
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The Deviant's War
- The Homosexual vs. the United States of America
- By: Eric Cervini
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1957, Frank Kameny, a rising astronomer working for the US Military in Hawaii, received a summons to report immediately to Washington, DC. The Pentagon had reason to believe he was a homosexual, and after a series of humiliating interviews, Kameny - like gay men and women for generations - was promptly dismissed from the military. Unlike many others, though, Kameny fought back.
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Big Surprise
- By elwood on 08-01-20
By: Eric Cervini
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Set the Night on Fire
- L.A. in the Sixties
- By: Mike Davis, Jon Wiener
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 25 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Los Angeles in the '60s was a hotbed of political and social upheaval. The city was a launchpad for Black Power - where Malcolm X and Angela Davis first came to prominence and the Watts uprising shook the nation. The city was home to the Chicano Blowouts and Chicano Moratorium, as well as being the birthplace of “Asian American” as a political identity. It was a locus of the antiwar movement, gay liberation movement, and women’s movement, and, of course, the capital of California counterculture.
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An amazingly comprehensive story of a critical decade.
- By Manifesta on 11-29-20
By: Mike Davis, and others
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Malcolm X
- A Life of Reinvention
- By: Manning Marable
- Narrated by: G. Valmont Thomas
- Length: 22 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Of the great figure in 20th-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story, he became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and an icon, all before being felled by assassins' bullets at age 39. Through his tireless work and countless speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands of black Americans to create better lives and stronger communities while establishing the template for the self-actualized, independent African American man.
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invites further reading on Malcolm X
- By connie on 05-14-11
By: Manning Marable
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We Gon' Be Alright
- Notes on Race and Resegregation
- By: Jeff Chang
- Narrated by: Jeff Chang
- Length: 5 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In these provocative, powerful essays acclaimed writer/journalist Jeff Chang (Can't Stop Won't Stop, Who We Be) takes an incisive and wide-ranging look at the recent tragedies and widespread protests that have shaken the country. Through deep reporting with key activists and thinkers, passionately personal writing, and distinguished cultural criticism, We Gon' Be Alright links #BlackLivesMatter to #OscarsSoWhite, Ferguson to Washington, DC, and more.
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a conversation that needs to happen
- By Angie B on 03-11-17
By: Jeff Chang
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Why Young Men
- The Dangerous Allure of Violent Movements and What We Can Do About It
- By: Jamil Jivani
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Jamil Jivani recounts his experiences working as a youth activist throughout North America and the Middle East, drawing striking parallels between ISIS recruits, gangbangers, and Neo-Nazis in the West. Having narrowly escaped a descent into crime and gang violence in his native Toronto, Jivani has devoted his life to helping other at-risk youths avoid this fate in cities across North America. After the Paris terrorist attacks of 2016, he traveled to Europe and the Middle East to assist Muslim community outreach groups focused on deterring ISIS recruitment.
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More of a memoir than a sociological tretise
- By Josh on 07-02-19
By: Jamil Jivani
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Ida B. the Queen
- By: Michelle Duster
- Narrated by: Michelle Duster
- Length: 3 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Ida B. Wells committed herself to the needs of those who did not have power. In the eyes of the FBI, this made her a “dangerous negro agitator”. In the annals of history, it makes her an icon. Ida B. the Queen tells the awe-inspiring story of a pioneering woman who was often overlooked and underestimated - a woman who refused to exit a train car meant for White passengers; a woman brought to light the horrors of lynching in America; a woman who cofounded the NAACP.
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I was expecting something different
- By L on 02-01-21
By: Michelle Duster
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Viral Justice
- How We Grow the World We Want
- By: Ruha Benjamin
- Narrated by: Ruha Benjamin
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Long before the pandemic, Ruha Benjamin was doing groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice, focusing on big, structural changes. But the twin plagues of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired her to rethink the importance of small, individual actions. Part memoir, part manifesto, Viral Justice is a sweeping and deeply personal exploration of how we can transform society through the choices we make every day.
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Fantastic book!
- By Avie Kearney on 05-21-23
By: Ruha Benjamin
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The Future Is History
- How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen's understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own - as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings.
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The author is an international treasure
- By ThreeGems on 10-16-17
By: Masha Gessen
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Black Against Empire
- The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party
- By: Joshua Bloom, Waldo E. Martin Jr.
- Narrated by: Ron Butler
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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In Oakland, California, in 1966, community college students Bobby Seale and Huey Newton armed themselves, began patrolling the police, and promised to prevent police brutality. Unlike the Civil Rights Movement that called for full citizenship rights for blacks within the US, the Black Panther Party rejected the legitimacy of the US government and positioned itself as part of a global struggle against American imperialism.
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the explanation of rise and fall Black Panther
- By Antwine Hurst on 03-24-17
By: Joshua Bloom, and others
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Goliath
- Life and Loathing in Greater Israel
- By: Max Blumenthal
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In Goliath, New York Times best-selling author Max Blumenthal takes us on a journey through the badlands and high roads of Israel-Palestine, painting a startling portrait of Israeli society under the siege of increasingly authoritarian politics as the occupation of the Palestinians deepens. Beginning with the national elections carried out during Israel's war on Gaza in 2008/9, which brought into power the country's most right-wing government to date, Blumenthal tells the story of Israel in the wake of the collapse of the Oslo peace process.
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The truth is rarely pretty
- By William on 10-15-13
By: Max Blumenthal
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Locking Up Our Own
- Crime and Punishment in Black America
- By: James Forman Jr.
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Today, Americans are debating our criminal justice system with new urgency. Mass incarceration and aggressive police tactics - and their impact on people of color - are feeding outrage and a consensus that something must be done. But what if we only know half the story? In Locking Up Our Own, the Yale legal scholar and former public defender James Forman Jr. weighs the tragic role that some African Americans themselves played in escalating the war on crime.
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Outstanding Book
- By Andrew on 12-13-17
By: James Forman Jr.
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Fight of the Century
- Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases
- By: Michael Chabon - editor, Ayelet Waldman - editor
- Narrated by: an all-star cast
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In collaboration with the ACLU, authors Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman have curated an anthology of essays about landmark cases in the organization’s 100-year history. Fight of the Century takes you inside the trials and the stories that have shaped modern life. Some of the most prominent cases that the ACLU has been involved in - Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, Miranda v. Arizona - need little introduction. Others you may never even have heard of, yet their outcomes quietly defined the world we live in now.
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Outstanding
- By Nancy B on 10-06-20
By: Michael Chabon - editor, and others
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Cop Under Fire
- Moving Beyond Hashtags of Race, Crime & Politics for a Better America
- By: David A. Clarke Jr., Sean Hannity, Nancy French - contributor
- Narrated by: David A. Clarke Jr.
- Length: 7 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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America has become increasingly divided and polarized in recent years. With growing animosity toward law enforcement professionals, government corruption, disregard for the constitution, and racial tension thanks to the media and hate groups, there seems to be no easy answer in sight. But Sheriff David Clarke knows where we must begin. We must stop blaming others and take ownership of our families, communities, and country.
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WOW! What a marvelous book.
- By Wayne on 07-02-17
By: David A. Clarke Jr., and others
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America on Fire
- The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 60's
- By: Elizabeth Hinton
- Narrated by: Shayna Small
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Elizabeth Hinton demonstrates in America on Fire the events of 2020 had clear precursors - and any attempt to understand our current crisis requires a reckoning with the recent past. Black rebellion, America on Fire powerfully illustrates, was born in response to poverty and exclusion, but most immediately in reaction to police violence. Presenting a new framework for understanding our nation’s strife, America on Fire is also a warning: Rebellions will surely continue until an oppressive system is finally remade on the principles of justice and equality.
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Giant leaps of logic
- By Aaron Rudroff on 08-10-21
By: Elizabeth Hinton
What listeners say about The Skin We're In
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Alex (Knight Vert)
- 06-02-20
Power Packed and Vital
This is one of those books that every (settler, and especially white) canadian should read. It joins Thomas King’s - The Inconvenient Indian in my ‘essential list’. Powerful and confronting Cole manages to also share a beautiful picture of what true unity might achieve if only we (white people) acknowledge the truth of our history, present and impending future and fight to break the systems of oppression. As a true storyteller he honours the stories told and offers hope that it is difficult to fathom how he still manages to hold on to.
Excellent and essential.
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- Taylor Britton
- 06-08-20
powerful and compelling
a powerful and compelling account of the systemic issues with the states monopoly on rights enforcement and justice. my only criticism is the authors surrender of capitalism as a "white institution/construct". The pre-colonial free markets of africa from great zimbabwe to timbuktu would beg to differ. ironically, socialism is the white institution/construct.
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- Rima Dib
- 08-02-20
A must read for ALL Canadians
A very thorough, difficult and uncomfortable analysis of anti-Black racism in Canada and all of its intersections including, Indigeneity, LGBTQ identities, ability, class, religion, sex and immigration status. Thank you Desmond Cole.
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- Sam
- 01-14-23
An eye opener
Being completely honest. I cried listening to this book. I can’t express enough how much Desmond Cole’s words and thorough, sharp research resonated with me as a young, black adult.
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