Black Like Who?: Writing Black CanadaRinaldo Walcott's groundbreaking study of black culture in Canada, Black Like Who?, 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. |
Contents
| 11 | |
Writing Blackness After | 25 |
1 Going to the North | 31 |
2 A Tough Geography | 43 |
3 Desiring to Belong? | 57 |
4 No Language is Neutral | 73 |
5 The Politics of Third Cinema in Canada | 89 |
6 Black Subjectivities | 101 |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic African African-American African-Canadian Alexis Alexis's ambivalence American argues articulate attempt Austin Clarke belonging black Atlantic black bodies black Canadian black cultural studies black diasporic cultures black language black popular culture black studies black women blackness in Canada border crossing Caribbean Caribbean/black popular culture cinematic claims Clarke Clarke's complex concerning contemporary context continually critics critique crucial cultural practices culture in Canada Delany's desire diasporic black Dionne Brand discourse of heritage discussion Dream Warriors engage essay ethnic evidence film filmmakers Foster Fresh-Wes George Elliott Clarke identity imagined immigrant important in-between insistence jazz Known Blood Maestro Fresh-Wes migration multicultural narrative nation-state Negro Creek Nourbese Philip novel particular performative play police position postmodern question racial racism Rascalz recent relation represent representations resistance Rude signal Somali Soul II Soul Soul Survivor space story suggest third cinema Toronto Tyrone Virgo's writing blackness Wynter
Popular passages
Page 23 - As an alternative to the metaphysics of "race," nation, and bounded culture coded into the body, diaspora is a concept that problematizes the cultural and historical mechanics of belonging. It disrupts the fundamental power of territory to determine identity by breaking the simple sequence of explanatory links between place, location, and consciousness (Gilroy 2000: 123).