I'm Still Here: Reese's Book Club: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK • From a leading voice on racial justice, an eye-opening account of growing up Black, Christian, and female that exposes how white America’s love affair with “diversity” so often falls short of its ideals.
“Austin Channing Brown introduces herself as a master memoirist. This book will break open hearts and minds.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed
Austin Channing Brown’s first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, 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 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 helping organizations practice genuine inclusion.
In a time when nearly every institution (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claims to value diversity in its mission statement, Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice. Her stories 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.
“Austin Channing Brown introduces herself as a master memoirist. This book will break open hearts and minds.”—Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Untamed
Austin Channing Brown’s first encounter with a racialized America came at age seven, 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 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 helping organizations practice genuine inclusion.
In a time when nearly every institution (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claims to value diversity in its mission statement, Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice. Her stories 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.
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Community Reviews
OMgsh I resonated SO MUCH with this book.
As a mixed woman with, what could be considered, a white name, I also got what the author what talking about how people expected to find a white man whenever she explained who she was.
There were so many things relevant to what's going on right now in the country, and it's crazy.
One line that really stuck out with me is when the author was mentioning what hope she has for racism changing. She explained how someone had once told her that if her ancestors were born in the mid 1700s they had nothing but ancestors who had experienced being enslaved and looked forward to their children being enslaved, and so the outlook of slavery ending looked very bleak. She explained how this resonated with her and how she feels about racism now. We live in a time where we have ancestors and older generations who lived through slavery, segregation and Jim Crow, and we are still having to explain to our young children how to protect their bodies and peace from white experiences they will inevitably live through.
With the climate of the country right now, that part REALLY stuck out with me, because I thought I was living in such a good time for a black person, because I wasn't experiencing slavery, I was ignorant in my thinking that racism had gone down, but we've reverted back to when anyone who isn't rich, white is looked at as lesser than and undeserving.
She left with the message that where this may be the world we are experiencing, and hope seems like a thing that is so hard to reach for, don't stop fighting. Be angry, be an agent of change and do it in the way that you can, just don't give up.
As a mixed woman with, what could be considered, a white name, I also got what the author what talking about how people expected to find a white man whenever she explained who she was.
There were so many things relevant to what's going on right now in the country, and it's crazy.
One line that really stuck out with me is when the author was mentioning what hope she has for racism changing. She explained how someone had once told her that if her ancestors were born in the mid 1700s they had nothing but ancestors who had experienced being enslaved and looked forward to their children being enslaved, and so the outlook of slavery ending looked very bleak. She explained how this resonated with her and how she feels about racism now. We live in a time where we have ancestors and older generations who lived through slavery, segregation and Jim Crow, and we are still having to explain to our young children how to protect their bodies and peace from white experiences they will inevitably live through.
With the climate of the country right now, that part REALLY stuck out with me, because I thought I was living in such a good time for a black person, because I wasn't experiencing slavery, I was ignorant in my thinking that racism had gone down, but we've reverted back to when anyone who isn't rich, white is looked at as lesser than and undeserving.
She left with the message that where this may be the world we are experiencing, and hope seems like a thing that is so hard to reach for, don't stop fighting. Be angry, be an agent of change and do it in the way that you can, just don't give up.
Sometimes it feels like someone or something can see through you to the ugliest parts of you. The parts of you that you didn’t even know were that ugly. The parts of you that southern Christian culture may have taught you to cover up or make excuses for. That book did that for me.
Austin helped me see my whiteness in a new way, a very hard way. How many times must I have failed my black brothers and sisters in my ignorance? After reading this book I have not only gained insight and new perspective but also a passion to help change. I can no longer be idle and silent.
Austin helped me see my whiteness in a new way, a very hard way. How many times must I have failed my black brothers and sisters in my ignorance? After reading this book I have not only gained insight and new perspective but also a passion to help change. I can no longer be idle and silent.
Book description is accurate review and I would add that this book brought tears to my eyes & made me smile.
I was a little dubious when I was reading the first two chapters, but then she gets to the meat of the book, and I thought the rest of it was really great. Very rarely do I think a book could be longer, but this was one I thought could have been expanded with relevant history and policy. Of course, that is an unreasonable desire on my part, because this is a memoir, but I just think she'd cover the relevant details really well. It is a great book.
Lately, I read a lot about both racism and feminism (the latter is not really mentioned in this book but it's relevant) and I think that's why a lot of what she said made a lot of sense to me and Brown was really great at tying together a lot of issues. I'm not certain if it would be as clear if you don't already have a lot of background in the history of race relations in the country and the institutionalization of racist laws and policies. Definitely one worth reading, regardless.
Lately, I read a lot about both racism and feminism (the latter is not really mentioned in this book but it's relevant) and I think that's why a lot of what she said made a lot of sense to me and Brown was really great at tying together a lot of issues. I'm not certain if it would be as clear if you don't already have a lot of background in the history of race relations in the country and the institutionalization of racist laws and policies. Definitely one worth reading, regardless.
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