I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
(Format used for this read: Print—hardback)
I have had this book for over a year but it was misplaced on my shelf.
(Such is a common issue when you own MANY books and your “To Be Read” pile is always growing in mass quantitites–#booknerdproblems)
I recently found it and immediately began to read…because voices like Austin Channing Brown’s are what we need to be listening to.
I will admit to yall that I did finish this book days ago…but I really wanted to let her words and her story sink into my heart, mind and thoughts before I wrote a review on it.
This book is not many pages in total….but there is SO MUCH SAID, yall.
Here is an official summary:
“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.”
I have wondered for a couple days now the proper way to honor Austin’s story she told in these pages.
I don’t want to center my voice….which I know sounds hella weird since this entire blog is all about WHAT I THINK….
But here is the thing.
My voice doesn’t matter when it comes to listening to her story.
My voice needs to be quiet and LISTEN.
Which is absolutely what I did while reading and want to keep on doing…and if you are a white person like me, you need to be doing too.
I find Austin Channing Brown to be a powerful voice for her community, for the Church, for our generation, and for our entire NATION.
In these pages she informs, calls out, exposes truth, exudes love, shares wisdom, shows vulnerability, breaks hearts, open minds, extends grace, and demands justice.
So this review will look a little different than usual…
Instead of a million of my rambling thoughts and feelings, I want to share some of her own words from this book with you.
Read them…let them soak in….and then GO BUY THE BOOK so you can read the rest.
We all need to LISTEN TO BLACK WOMEN, yall.
Especially us white folks…we just need to sit down, shut up, and open up our ears, hearts and minds.
Here are some of Austin’s words and the title of the chapter the words come from:
-White People are Exhausting-
“White people can be exhausting. Particularly exhausting are white people who don’t know they are white, and those who need to be white. But of all the white people I’ve met–and I’ve met a lot of them in more than three decades of living, studying, and working in places where I’m often the only Black woman in sight–the first I found exhausting were those who expected ME to be white.”
-Playing Spades-
“Tiffani was my bridge to understanding that Black is beautiful whether it looked nerdy like me or cool like her. I could choose what felt right for me without needing to be like everyone, or needing everyone to be like me. Black is NOT monolithic. Black is expansive, and I didn’t need the approval of whiteness in order to feel good in my skin; there was no whiteness available to offer an opinion. It was freedom.”
-The Other Side of Harmony-
“It is often expected–both by other students and by the teacher–that Black students will have no problem acting as the race experts for their classrooms. Eventually, though, we begin to question whether we’ll be safe when the subject comes up–or if we even have the right to speak on behalf of ALL Black people.”
-Ain’t No Friends Here-
“Dr Simms wanted us to be emotionally connected to our learning, to sit in the pain, the horror, the absurdity of America’s racist history, and to humanize those who dared stand against the system. Dr. Simms made us believe that we could follow that legacy of resistance, but one piece of his advice stood out to me more than all the others: ‘Ain’t no friends here’. “
-Whiteness at Work-
“Whiteness wants us to be empty, malleable, so that it can shape Blackness into whatever is necessary for the white organization’s own success. It sees potential, possibility, a future where Black people could share some of the benefits of whiteness if only we try hard enough to mimic it. The initial expectation is that I simply code-switch, conforming to the cultural communication of white people when I’m with them. But in the end, this is never enough.”
-White Fragility-
“This is partly what makes the fragility of whiteness so dangerous. It ignores the personhood of people of color and instead makes the feelings of whiteness the most important thing.”
-Nice White People-
“White people desperately want to believe that only the lonely, isolated “whites only” club members are racist. This is why the word racist offends ‘nice white people’ so deeply. It challenges their self identification as good people. Sadly, most white people are more worried about being called racist than about whether or not their actions are in fact racist or harmful.”
-The Story We Tell-
“Slavery was no accident.
We didn’t trip and fall into black subjugation.
Racism wasn’t a bad joke that just never went away.
It was all on purpose.
Every bit of it was on purpose.
Racial injustices, like slavery and our system of mass incarceration, were purposeful inventions, but instead of seeking to understand how we got here, the national narrative remains filled with comforting myths, patchwork time lines, and colonial ideals.”
“And when we talk about race today, with all the pain packed into that conversation, the Holy Spirit remains in the room. This doesn’t mean the conversations aren’t painful, aren’t personal, aren’t charged with emotion. But it does mean we can survive……….For only by being truthful about how we got here can we imagine another way.”
-Creative Anger-
“I serve a God who experienced and expressed anger. One of the most meaningful passages of Scripture for me is found in the New Testament, where Jesus lead a one man protest inside the Temple walls….I imagine the next day’s newspapers called Jesus’ anger destructive. But I think those without power would’ve said that his anger led to freedom….”
-A God for the Accused-
“Whiteness has never needed much of an excuse for our deaths. Accused of looking at a white woman. Scared the officer. Thought he had a weapon. Had a criminal record (that the officer knew nothing about). Looked suspicious. Looked like someone else. It doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, Blackness is always the true offense.”
-We’re Still Here-
“I am not impressed that slavery was abolished or that Jim Crow ended. I feel no need to pat America on its back for these ‘acheivements’. This is how it always should have been. Many call it progress, but I do not consider it praiseworthy that only within that last generation did America reach the baseline for human decency.”
-Justice, Then Reconciliation-
“Reconciliation is not a magic word that we can trot out whenever we need healing or inspiration….Too often, our discussions of race are emotional but not strategic, our outreach work remains paternalistic, and our ethnic celebrations fetishize people of color.”
“When white people stop short of reconciliation, it’s often because they are motivated by a deep need to believe in their own goodness, and for that goodness to be affirmed over and over again….But reconciliation is not about white feelings. It’s about diverting power and attention to the oppressed, toward the powerless. It’s not enough to dabble at diversity and inclusion while leaving the existing authority structure in place. Reconciliation demands more.”
I know those were a lot of quotes…and I hope you could feel the impact from them like I did.
Every page in this book is full of Austin’s story and her experience…but as you can see she also gives us history and education as well.
So much to learn from this book.
As a white woman, I will never know how it feels to embody a black body in this country.
Which is why it is SO SO vital that I LISTEN UP when others tell their stories….to learn from, to lament alongside, and to follow their lead in the calls for justice.
Add this to your reading list NOW, yall.