Black Boys Like Me

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 real—authentic, 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 I’d 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 responsibility as a Black man and how I present versus who I really am. Black Boys Like Me isn’t 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, Matthew R. 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 were moments when I 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, Morris’s book is not a guidebook for growing up Black—it is a guidebook for conversations about the confusion that growing up Black all too often presents.”  —Craig Shreve, author of The African Samurai “Black Boys Like Me crafts the difficult truths of post-1960s Black masculinities. Matthew R. Morris’s story is only individual in so far as it is an example and even an index of the collective story that so many Black men have lived. Black boys and men make up themselves somewhere between the elements of popular culture (especially hip-hop), sport culture (basketball and football in particular), the perpetual anticipation of violence—and sometimes its actual arrival—suspicion, fear, and a host of other degradations. And yes, importantly, survival and self-making is forged out of support, love, tenderness, and community, too. Morris’s powerful words alert us to all that is possible when the truth of that collective story can not only be told but also heard on its own terms.” —Rinaldo Walcott, author of The Long Emancipation and Chair of Africana and American Studies at the University at Buffalo “In a blend of academic discourse and personal narrative, Morris provides a compelling picture of how being Black has operated and continues to operate in his life and that of others. He reminds us that racial identity is not simply a choice that a person makes, but a product of the socio-political context in which individuals live, and how they are viewed based on skin colour particularly in societies in which racism and related inequities operate to determine life opportunities, trajectories, and outcomes. In pushing beyond the common constructs and/or stereotypes of Black personhood, Morris reveals the complex, contradictory, contextual, and changing nature of Blackness. Black Boys Like Me is a timely must-read book.” —Carl E. James, author of Colour Matters: Essays on the Experiences, Education, and Pursuits of Black Youth, co-author of First-Generation Student Experiences in Higher Education, and Jean Augustine Chair in Education, Community & Diaspora, at York University