Sign-In
Cart
Disorientation: Being Black in the World
Hardcover
Biographies GeneralGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesSocial Movements
Currently unavailable to order
Please enter your email and a message will be sent to you when this product becomes available on our website.
ISBN13: 9781609457396
Publisher: Europa Compass
Published: Nov 30 2021
Pages: 224
Weight: 0.50
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.00 Depth: 7.20
Language: English
A BOSTON GLOBE BEST BOOK OF 2021
Bestselling Scotiabank Giller Award-winning writer Ian Williams brings a fresh point of view and new insights to the urgent conversation on race and racism in these illuminating essays born from his own experience as a Black man in the world.
With that one eloquent word, disorientation, Ian Williams captures the impact of racial encounters on racialized people--the whiplash of race that occurs while minding one's own business. Sometimes the consequences are only irritating, but sometimes they are deadly. Spurred by the police killings and street protests of 2020, Williams offers a perspective that is distinct from that of U.S. writers addressing similar themes. Williams has lived in Trinidad (where he was never the only Black person in the room), in Canada (where he often was), and in the United States (where as a Black man from the Caribbean, he was a different kind of only). He brings these formative experiences fruitfully to bear on his theme in Disorientation.
Inspired by the essays of James Baldwin, in which the personal becomes the gateway to larger ideas, Williams explores such matters as the unmistakable moment when a child realizes they are Black; the ten characteristics of institutional whiteness; how friendship forms a bulwark against being a target of racism; the meaning and uses of a Black person's smile; and blame culture--or how do we make meaningful change when no one feels responsible for the systemic structures of the past.
Disorientation is a book for all readers who believe that civil conversation on even the most charged subjects is possible. Employing his vast and astonishing gift for language, Ian Williams gives readers an open, honest, and personal perspective on an undeniably important subject.
Disorientation is so honest, vulnerable, courageous and funny that it left me dying to sit down over a long coffee with Ian Williams. Make that two lattes, and I'm buying!--Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes
Also in
Biographies General
The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle and Generally Have
Rubin, Gretchen
Paperback
Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes: Jim Walsh on Music from Minneapolis to the Outer Limits
Walsh, Jim
Hardcover
Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World
Peters, C. J.
Olshaker, Mark
Paperback
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl's Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age
Irvine, Coco
Paperback
From Here to the Great Unknown: Oprah's Book Club: A Memoir
Keough, Riley
Presley, Lisa Marie
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Hardcover
Undercover Junkie: Chasing Highs, Confronting Killers, and Unraveling in the Chaos
Cartwright, Brent
Hardcover
Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty
Clinton, Hillary Rodham
Hardcover
Covet the Comeback: How a Son of Greek Immigrants Found Success, Lost Everything, Then Built a Fashion Empire
Garkinos, Christos
Paperback
We Will Be Jaguars (Reese's Book Club Pick): A Memoir of My People
Anderson, Mitch
Nenquimo, Nemonte
Hardcover
The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science
Sobel, Dava
Hardcover
Undercover Junkie: Chasing Highs, Confronting Killers, and Unraveling in the Chaos
Cartwright, Brent
Paperback
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Sheldrake, Merlin
Paperback
Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman's Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his son: Perspectives, Ideology, and Wisdom
Rockefeller, J. D.
Paperback
True Gretch: What I've Learned about Life, Leadership, and Everything in Between
Whitmer, Gretchen
Hardcover
The Devil at His Elbow: Alex Murdaugh and the Fall of a Southern Dynasty
Bauerlein, Valerie
Hardcover
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Gwynne, S. C.
Paperback
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Romney, Rebecca
Hardcover
What in the World?!: A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings
Morgan, Leanne
Hardcover
Dinner for Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show (While Also in an Actual Cult!)
Lenz, Bethany Joy
Hardcover
Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark
Henion, Leigh Ann
Hardcover
The Survivor: How I Made It Through Six Concentration Camps and Became a Nazi Hunter
Lewkowicz, Josef
Hardcover
Reality Check: Making the Best of the Situation - How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison
Sorrentino, Mike The Situation
Hardcover
Voice for the Voiceless: Over Seven Decades of Struggle with China for My Land and My People
Lama, Dalai
Hardcover
Trail of the Lost: The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail
Lankford, Andrea
Paperback
Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History
Campbell, Olivia
Hardcover
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee
Paperback