“ Black Boys Like Me ignited parts of me I honestly didn't believe any book could ever know.” —Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy “A must-read.” —Dr. Robin DiAngelo, New York Times bestselling author of White Fragility and Nice Racism Startlingly honest, bracing personal essays from a perceptive educator that bring us into the world of Black masculinity, hip-hop culture, and learning. 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. *INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER* *LONGLISTED FOR THE TORONTO BOOK AWARD* CBC's Top Nonfiction Pick for Spring 2024 One of: CBC’s “Best Canadian nonfiction of 2024” Zoomer ’s “ 8 Books For Black History Month ” Toronto Star ’s “Holiday Gift Guide” Picks Praise for Black Boys Like Me : “[A] fascinating look into the inspiration, motivation, challenges and reflections of a teacher . . . really powerful.” —Amanda Parris, CBC “A buzzy debut.” — Zoomer “ 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