Awards

• Winner of The Best Edited Collection Prize awarded by Canadian Studies Network 2022 (Canada)

Overview

Unsettling the Great White North offers a chronological, regional, and thematic compilation of some of the latest and best scholarship in the field of Black Canadian history. An exhaustive volume of leading scholarship in the field of Black Canadian history, Unsettling the Great White North highlights the diverse experiences of persons of African descent within the chronicles of Canada's past. The book considers histories and theoretical framings within the disciplines of history, sociology, law, and cultural and gender studies to chart the mechanisms of exclusion and marginalisation in ""multicultural"" Canada and to situate Black Canadians as speakers and agents of their own lives. Working to interrupt the myth of benign whiteness that has been deeply implanted into the country's imagination, Unsettling the Great White North uncovers new narratives of Black life in Canada.

Full Product Details

9781487529178

Table of Contents

Reviews

Unsettling the Great White North is a major contribution. Encompassing essays on topics ranging from slavery to community studies about African immigrants, this indispensable book should be read by all students of Canadian history. - Harvey Amani Whitfield, Professor of Black North American History, University of Calgary Unsettling the Great White North finds a path through the hazy four centuries of Black history in Canada to elucidate the racial oppression of Blacks, and its attendant resistance-resilience dialectic. The book paints an unpleasant, albeit truthful, portrait of the procedures of Othering used to sustain the exclusion of Blacks in many spheres of Canadian life. The enduring desire of the majority to extract racial subsidies from Blacks in pursuit of profit is illuminated in a voice that is often deeply poetic. This is an indispensable resource for scholars of Black Studies in Canada. - Joseph Mensah, Professor, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University Unsettling the Great White North is a vital collection of historical scholarship featuring bold and accomplished voices in the field of Black Canadian Studies, and illuminating a striking diversity of periods, regions, communities, institutions, art forms, and emergent frames of inquiry. Expertly curated, it offers precious knowledge and critical insight to scholars and general readers alike. - David Chariandy, Professor of English, Simon Fraser University, and author of Brother Unsettling the Great White North, the first volume of its kind, is an impressive collection in depth, scope, and quality. Twenty-one authors centre and make visible the experiences of African Canadians, including recent migrants (Rwandans and other continental Africans). Collectively, albeit with different emphases, these authors bear witness to histories of exclusion and marginalization while simultaneously underscoring African Canadians as agents of their own lives. Unsettling the Great White North clears up any misconception regarding African Canadians' contributions to Canada's nation-building enterprise. An authoritative text that is accessible to and suitable for both academic and general audiences interested in Black Canadian Studies and history. - Karen Flynn, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and author of Moving beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora How did Canada become white? Dispossession, erasure, and a sham multiculturalism. This extraordinary volume of essays exposes settler violence and fraudulent claims of 'inclusion' and offers instead a long, deep, and often hidden history of Black struggles for freedom, power, and self-determination. It should be required reading, not only for Canadians but for all of us on occupied Turtle Island and around the world. - Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical This collection, by locating the past as a force shadowing the present and informing Black people's ongoing search for freedom, overwrites narratives of a redemptive Canadian multicultural citizenship to narrate the possibilities by which Black people have survived, and continue to survive, conquest and subjugation. This comprehensive cartography of Black life in Canada is a stunning achievement and essential reading in Black Canadian history and thought. - Andrea A. Davis, Associate Professor of Humanities, York University, and co-editor of The Journal of Canadian Studies This important collection of essays engages with the presence of Black people (people of African descent) in this region colonially known as Canada. But more than this, the compelling essays demonstrate the importance of Black Studies in addressing the historical and current conditions and experiences of Black life. This is a book for all interested in Black Studies! - OmiSoore H. Dryden, James R. Johnston (JRJ) Chair in Black Canadian Studies and Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University This is an important and comprehensive contribution to the Black Canadian historical studies. It offers critical analyses regarding the diversity, complexity, and creativity of Black Canadian lives and new understandings about the racialized history of African Canadians as well as the ways in which Black communities have overcome systemic barriers. Unsettling the Great White North indeed unsettles dominant historical practices and centres the very people who have been left out of history. - Annette Henry, David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education, Professor of Language and Literacy Education, and Professor at the Institute for Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia This is essential reading for all Canadians. Michele A. Johnson and Funke Aladejebi, two formidable scholars, have collated and edited a perfect mix of essays focused on Black Canadian history. These documented Black Canadian stories can now be shared and debated, bringing about awareness of the Black Canadian presence - indeed Unsettling the Great White North. - Honourable Dr. Jean Augustine P.C., C.M., O.Ont., C.B.E., First Black Canadian Woman elected to the Parliament of Canada, Proposed the motion to designate February as Black History Month in Canada This timely collection challenges any remaining conception of the Great White North as a refuge from anti-Black violence and exclusion. Documenting the long and varied histories of endurance, negotiation, and resistance against racism among persons of African descent, this volume not only challenges any conception of the Black Canadian experience as 'linear, unchanging, homogenous, and recent, ' it also offers a vital corrective to the erasure of Black Canadians from the national myths about who 'we' are, and who 'we' can become. Truly a must read! - Beverley Mullings, Professor of Geography and Planning, Queen's University

""Under the stewardship of Johnson and Aladejebi, Unsettling the Great White North provides an important and necessary scholarly intervention that recognizes Black agency in Canadian history and will certainly serve as a guiding anthology for both classrooms and the public in how we think about Canada."" -- Cameron Tardif * <em>American Review of Canadian Studies</em> *

Unsettling the Great White North is a major contribution. Encompassing essays on topics ranging from slavery to community studies about African immigrants, this indispensable book should be read by all students of Canadian history. - Harvey Amani Whitfield, Professor of Black North American History, University of Calgary Unsettling the Great White North finds a path through the hazy four centuries of Black history in Canada to elucidate the racial oppression of Blacks, and its attendant resistance-resilience dialectic. The book paints an unpleasant, albeit truthful, portrait of the procedures of Othering used to sustain the exclusion of Blacks in many spheres of Canadian life. The enduring desire of the majority to extract racial subsidies from Blacks in pursuit of profit is illuminated in a voice that is often deeply poetic. This is an indispensable resource for scholars of Black Studies in Canada. - Joseph Mensah, Professor, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University Unsettling the Great White North is a vital collection of historical scholarship featuring bold and accomplished voices in the field of Black Canadian Studies, and illuminating a striking diversity of periods, regions, communities, institutions, art forms, and emergent frames of inquiry. Expertly curated, it offers precious knowledge and critical insight to scholars and general readers alike. - David Chariandy, Professor of English, Simon Fraser University, and author of Brother Unsettling the Great White North, the first volume of its kind, is an impressive collection in depth, scope, and quality. Twenty-one authors centre and make visible the experiences of African Canadians, including recent migrants (Rwandans and other continental Africans). Collectively, albeit with different emphases, these authors bear witness to histories of exclusion and marginalization while simultaneously underscoring African Canadians as agents of their own lives. Unsettling the Great White North clears up any misconception regarding African Canadians' contributions to Canada's nation-building enterprise. An authoritative text that is accessible to and suitable for both academic and general audiences interested in Black Canadian Studies and history. - Karen Flynn, Associate Professor of Gender and Women's Studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and author of Moving beyond Borders: A History of Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the Diaspora How did Canada become white? Dispossession, erasure, and a sham multiculturalism. This extraordinary volume of essays exposes settler violence and fraudulent claims of 'inclusion' and offers instead a long, deep, and often hidden history of Black struggles for freedom, power, and self-determination. It should be required reading, not only for Canadians but for all of us on occupied Turtle Island and around the world. - Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical This collection, by locating the past as a force shadowing the present and informing Black people's ongoing search for freedom, overwrites narratives of a redemptive Canadian multicultural citizenship to narrate the possibilities by which Black people have survived, and continue to survive, conquest and subjugation. This comprehensive cartography of Black life in Canada is a stunning achievement and essential reading in Black Canadian history and thought. - Andrea A. Davis, Associate Professor of Humanities, York University, and co-editor of The Journal of Canadian Studies This important collection of essays engages with the presence of Black people (people of African descent) in this region colonially known as Canada. But more than this, the compelling essays demonstrate the importance of Black Studies in addressing the historical and current conditions and experiences of Black life. This is a book for all interested in Black Studies! - OmiSoore H. Dryden, James R. Johnston (JRJ) Chair in Black Canadian Studies and Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University This is an important and comprehensive contribution to the Black Canadian historical studies. It offers critical analyses regarding the diversity, complexity, and creativity of Black Canadian lives and new understandings about the racialized history of African Canadians as well as the ways in which Black communities have overcome systemic barriers. Unsettling the Great White North indeed unsettles dominant historical practices and centres the very people who have been left out of history. - Annette Henry, David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education, Professor of Language and Literacy Education, and Professor at the Institute for Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia This is essential reading for all Canadians. Michele A. Johnson and Funké Aladejebi, two formidable scholars, have collated and edited a perfect mix of essays focused on Black Canadian history. These documented Black Canadian stories can now be shared and debated, bringing about awareness of the Black Canadian presence - indeed Unsettling the Great White North. - Honourable Dr. Jean Augustine P.C., C.M., O.Ont., C.B.E., First Black Canadian Woman elected to the Parliament of Canada, Proposed the motion to designate February as Black History Month in Canada This timely collection challenges any remaining conception of the Great White North as a refuge from anti-Black violence and exclusion. Documenting the long and varied histories of endurance, negotiation, and resistance against racism among persons of African descent, this volume not only challenges any conception of the Black Canadian experience as 'linear, unchanging, homogenous, and recent, ' it also offers a vital corrective to the erasure of Black Canadians from the national myths about who 'we' are, and who 'we' can become. Truly a must read! - Beverley Mullings, Professor of Geography and Planning, Queen's University

Author Information

Michele A. Johnson is a professor in the Department of History at York University. Funké Aladejebi is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto.

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