SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS

Social justice—or what passes for it—falls under the scrutiny of a Canadian voice actor, cultural critic, and editor-in-chief of Catapult magazine.

As a biracial Black performer who has done voice-over work in the U.S. and Canada for two decades, Isen has seen firsthand the many ways in which well-intentioned ideas on race, gender, and culture—whether promoted by liberals or conservatives—can hurt people they aim to help. In the nine essays in this stellar debut collection, the author probes the gap between expectation and reality. Her opening essay, “Hearing Voices,” sets the tone with its wry view of “the authenticity boom” that seeks to have Black animated characters voiced only by Black actors. “What Black characters?” Isen asks, adding that in 2018, only 3% of the lead or co-lead roles in animated films were for women of color and that an insistence on perfect “phenotypic match[ing]” between an actor and character “would shut too many of us out until further notice.” In “Tiny White People,” Isen examines the recent surge in anti-racist books, finding further evidence of Toni Morrison’s view that Black authors’ work gets read “as sociology, as tolerance, but not as a serious and rigorous art form,” and in “Diversity Hire,” she faults diversity initiatives that make companies “look progressive” without ending underlying injustices. Such issues are not solely American, she argues: See “Dead or Canadian,” which deflates the myth that “Canada does not have a racism problem, or an epidemic of police brutality,” or that its “national reverence for diversity is, like the politeness of its citizens, just there, unflappable and eternal.” Isen has a penchant for buzzwords that rob her work of some of its potential elegance, but as a whole, this book shows a bracing willingness to tackle sensitive issues that others often sweep under a rug.

Fresh and intelligent critiques of popular North American ideas about race and gender.