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

An eye-opening story of growing up Black, Christian, and feminine in middle-class white America from a compelling new voice on racial justice.

Texas Channing At the age of seven, Brown learned that her parents had given her the name Austin in order to pass herself off as a white guy to potential employment. This was her first introduction to a racially charged America. Austin says, "I had to learn what it means to love blackness," a process that led to a career spent negotiating America's racial divide as a writer, speaker, and expert who assists organisations in practising real inclusion. Austin grew up in mostly white schools, organisations, and churches.

Nowadays, almost all organizations—churches, colleges, corporations, and schools—claim to support "diversity" in their mission statements. However, I'm Still This is a compelling explanation of how and why our words and deeds so often diverge. In tales that testify to the complexity of America's social fabric, from Black Cleveland neighbourhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organisations, Austin writes in stunning detail about her journey to self-worth and the traps that destroy our attempts at racial justice.

For those who have read Ta-Nehisi Coates's and Michael Eric Dyson's writings and are interested in America's racial history, I'm Still This insightful look at how white, middle-class Evangelicalism has contributed to a time of growing racial animosity challenges the reader to acknowledge God's continuing activity in the world, overcome indifference, and learn how blackness may rescue us all if we let it.