Black Like Who? - Softcover

Walcott, Rinaldo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1895837073 ISBN 13: 9781895837070

Publisher: Insomniac Press, 2003

Synopsis

A study of black Canadian culture, Black Like Who? remaps the North American landscape. With hip-hop, film, literature, social unrest, sports, and the electronic media as his focus, Rinaldo Walcott not only outlines the role of black Canadians in building and defining Canada, he also demonstrates how Canadian blackness is conceived and lived out in ways that are both radically un-American and, ultimately, un-Canadian. Exploring everything from the lyrics and sampling of the Dream Warriors and Maestro Fresh-Wes to the writing of Dionne Brand, the tensions between sprinters Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson, the Rodney King verdict, the popularity of the hood film, and the treatment of immigrant Somali communities, Black Like Who? is a compelling investigation into what it means to be both black and Canadian.

About this title

Synopsis

Rinaldo Walcott's groundbreaking study of black culture in Canada, this book caused such an uproar upon its publication in 1997 that Insomniac Press has decided to publish a second revised edition of this perennial best-seller. With its incisive readings of hip-hop, film, literature, social unrest, sports, music and the electronic media, Walcott's book not only assesses the role of black Canadians in defining Canada, it also argues strenuously against any notion of an essentialist Canadian blackness. As erudite on the issue of American super-critic Henry Louis Gates' blindness to black Canadian realities as he is on the rap of the Dream Warriors and Maestro Fresh Wes, Walcott's essays are thought-provoking and always controversial in the best sense of the word. They have added and continue to add immeasurably to public debate.

Edition details

• Publisher: Insomniac Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1895837073
• ISBN 13: 9781895837070
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 190