I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

 Title: I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

Author: Austin Channing Brown

Genre: Memoir

Blurb:

From a powerful new voice on racial justice, an eye-opening account of growing up Black, Christian, and female in middle-class white America.

Austin Channing Brown's first encounter with a racialized America came at age 7, when she discovered her parents named her Austin to deceive future employers into thinking she was a white man. Growing up in majority-white schools, organizations, and churches, Austin writes, "I had to learn what it means to love blackness," a journey that led to a lifetime spent navigating America's racial divide as a writer, speaker and expert who helps organizations practice genuine inclusion.

In a time when nearly all institutions (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claim to value "diversity" in their mission statements, I'm Still Here is a powerful account of how and why our actions so often fall short of our words. Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice, in stories that bear witness to the complexity of America's social fabric--from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations.

For readers who have engaged with America's legacy on race through the writing of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Michael Eric Dyson, I'm Still Here is an illuminating look at how white, middle-class, Evangelicalism has participated in an era of rising racial hostility, inviting the reader to confront apathy, recognize God's ongoing work in the world, and discover how blackness--if we let it--can save us all. 

My Review: 

My book club read this a while ago, but we were finally able to have our meeting the other day, so I thought this would be the perfect time to write a review.  This is probably one of the best memoirs I've ever read.  You never know what you don't know, and I did not know a lot.  That is one of my favorite parts of reading memoirs like this, you get the opportunity to see the world from another person's perspective. Austin Channing Brown is a remarkable woman.  She has faced more than her fair share of challenges, all because of the color of her skin.  It made me realize that some of the things I take for granted other people are struggling and fighting for every day.  It is very frustrating and unfair that prejudice still plays such a major role in our society.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5