The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging

McGill University political scientist Thompson (The Schematic State) mixes memoir and pointed social critique in this revealing study of “the peculiar nuances of racism in Canada and the United States.” Thompson’s great-great-grandparents fled the American South (family legend has it they escaped from a Virginia plantation that once belonged to George Washington’s relatives) for Shrewsbury, Ontario, one of the last stops on the Underground Railroad, sometime before the Civil War. In 2010, Thompson moved to the U.S., pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship and teaching positions in Cambridge, Mass.; Athens, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.; and Eugene, Ore. She analyzes regional differences in racial dynamics within the U.S., noting that Oregon is home to numerous white supremacist groups, as well as America’s first “officially recognized antifascist organization,” and draws sharp assessments of Canada’s more subtle forms of institutionalized racism, including “the selective enforcement of obscure regulations, deception, bribery, and campaigns of dissuasion” to limit Black immigration. Along the way, Thompson takes stock of Trumpism, Black Lives Matter, and other contemporary political developments; documents the discrimination and “professional sabotage” she faced in the “predominantly white, elitist space” of academia; and lucidly explains such concepts as Indigenous anticolonialism and virtue signaling. The result is a meaningful contribution to the understanding of racism. Photos. (Sept.)