The Blacks in Canada: A History Book

I was recommended to read this as part of my work. The recommendation came with the intention of informing me about the historical context of Black Canadians. This is an area I need a lot of education on, so I was happy to work on this gap.

Having finished it, I am very uncomfortable and not just for the reasons I expected. The datedness and the whiteness of the author is very, very apparent.

I've learned a lot of historical facts about the gross manipulation of the Black community by Canadian federal, provincial, and civic governments throughout the centuries. This was eye opening from as a legal timeline perspective.

Also, I am even more aware of how white our university history departments are. This has not changed, even since 1997 when this book was published in its second edition.

In the end, I wish there was a different book I could have read, by a black author writing much more recently about this topic. I just did a search to try and find other authors writing about this topic published in the last ten years. They are nearly all senior, white male academics. So, yup. Except one! I will be reading a book by Karen Flynn next.