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Black Boys Like Me: Confrontations with Race, Identity, and Belonging

(Hardback)

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Publishing Details

Full Title:

Black Boys Like Me: Confrontations with Race, Identity, and Belonging

Contributors:

By (Author) Matthew R. Morris

ISBN:

9780735244580

Publisher:

Prentice Hall Press

Imprint:

Prentice Hall Press

Publication Date:

16th January 2024

UK Publication Date:

16th January 2024

Country:

United States

Classifications

Readership:

General

Fiction/Non-fiction:

Non Fiction

Main Subject:
Dewey:

B

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Hardback

Number of Pages:

224

Dimensions:

Width 161mm, Height 236mm

Weight:

428g

Description

"Black Boys Like Me ignited parts of me I honestly didn't believe any book could ever know. . . . Seldom do incredibly titled books earn their titles. Matthew R. Morris earns this classic title with a classic book about our insides." -Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy Startlingly honest, bracing personal essays from a perceptive educator that bring us into the world of Black masculinity, hip-hop culture, and learning. This is an examination of the parts that construct my Black character; from how public schooling shapes our ideas about ourselves to how hip-hop and sports are simultaneously the conduit for both Black abundance and Black boundaries. This book is a meditation on the influences that have shaped Black boys like me. What does it mean to be a young Black man with an immigrant father and a white mother, teaching in a school system that historically has held an exclusionary definition of success In eight illuminating essays, Matthew R. Morris grapples with this question, and others related to identity and perception. After graduating high school in Scarborough, Morris spent four years in the U.S. on multiple football scholarships and, having spent that time in the States experiencing "the Mecca of hip hop and Black culture," returned home with a newfound perspective. Now an elementary school teacher himself in Toronto, Morris explores the tension between his consumption of Black culture as a child, his teenage performances of the ideas and values of the culture that often betrayed his identity, and the ways society and the people guiding him-his parents, coaches, and teachers-received those performances. What emerges is a painful journey toward transcending performance altogether, toward true knowledge of the self. With the wide-reaching scope of Desmond Cole's The Skin We're In and the introspective snapshot of life in Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Black Boys Like Me is an unflinching debut that invites readers to create braver spaces and engage in crucial conversations around race and belonging.

Reviews

Praise for Black Boys Like Me:

Black Boys Like Me ignited parts of me I honestly didn't believe any book could ever know. The language, and all its frequencies, pulses and settles in ways reminiscent of the first time I read bell hooks. Seldom do incredibly titled books earn their titles. Matthew R. Morris earns this classic title with a classic book about our insides.
Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

In visceral and compelling prose, Morris illuminates the myriad layers of racial identity and the tenacity of internalized racism. Gorgeously written, Black Boys Like Me is a must-read for understanding both the big and little Rs of racism and how it implicates all of us in different ways, relative to our positions within it.
Dr. Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility and Nice Racism

Black Boys Like Me is a wonder. It manages to evoke the realness of growing up Black and male in Toronto while stoking a profound discussion of the ways in which we Black boys perform our Blackness to navigate an often hostile society. It is by turns insightful, revealing, and funny, but its greatest strength is that it is always realauthentic, brave, and vulnerable. Matthew is unflinching in showing us the boy he was and the man he has become. This is a book with powerful ramifications that go beyond race and masculinity and touch the humanity of all our becomings.
Antonio Michael Downing, author of Saga Boy

Wow! Just wow! Before Id even finished the first chapter, I read words on the page that I've only thought about in my mind and never seen in print. Ever. Matthew was inside my head this entire book and made me reflect on my own responsibilityas a Black man and how I present versus who I really am. Black Boys Like Me isnt simply a book about race. It's a meditation on life as a racialized individual. Absolutely fantastic.
Kern Carter, author of Boys and Girls Screaming

In Black Boys Like Me, MatthewR.Morris shows a level of honesty and self-reflection that few of us are capable of, and he has the skill to articulate clearly what he finds there.There weremomentswhenI saw things on the page that I had often felt but never expressed, nor knew how to. Morris captures the struggle of trying to interpret all the various signals telling us what we are supposed to be. Jolting, raw, and intensely personal, Morrissbook is not a guidebook for growing up Blackit is a guidebook for conversations about the confusion that growing up Black all too often presents.
Craig Shreve, author of The African Samurai

Author Bio

MATTHEW R. MORRIS is an educator, anti-racism advocate, and writer based out of Toronto. He earned a BA (Hons) and an MA in Social Justice Education from the University of Toronto. In addition to teaching, his work and public speaking on the deconstruction of Black masculinity, hip-hop culture, and schooling has taken him across North America to consult on and learn about the challenges facing students and educators in the current education system. He has written articles for TVO, Huffington Post, ETFO Voice, and Education Canada magazine. Morris is a TEDx speaker and has been featured in Toronto Star and Toronto Sun, and on CBC Radio and CityNews Toronto.

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