November 22, 2021
Novelist and poet Williams (Reproduction) delivers a probing if uneven study of racialized consciousness and the challenges of talking about race. Expressing discomfort with the “extremity of rhetoric” around the topic, Williams notes that when he tries to categorize his experiences of racism, “they come waddling back to me, shedding labels, dishevelled and unruly.” Interweaving autobiographical anecdotes with discussions of 18th-century slave narratives and contemporary works by Claudia Rankine and others, Williams describes the disorientation Black people feel when they’re made aware of “white dominance” in an unsuspecting moment (like the time a pair of white men repeatedly used the n-word while walking behind him on a San Antonio street), and the defensive strategies they adopt to regain a sense of equilibrium after such encounters. He also calls on white people to “habitually recognize the negative impact of their behaviour rather than excusing themselves for having neutral intentions,” and draws on his experiences growing up in Trinidad and living in Korea to examine how race operates when “whiteness is decentered.” In other instances, such as a discussion of ancestry and identity interwoven with details of his difficulties moving from Vancouver to Toronto, Williams’s point of view seems more half-baked than fully honed. Readers will savor the flashes of insight, but wish for more consistency.