I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Published by Penguin Random House Audio
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
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.
Related to I'm Still Here
Related audiobooks
Rebuild the Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Playing for Their Lives: The Global El Sistema Movement for Social Change Through Music Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Color of Life: A Journey toward Love and Racial Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Catching the Sky Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sing the Old Songs (Unabridged) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5My American Revolution: Crossing the Delaware and I-78 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Resistance: From the Women's March to the Blue Wave Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Helping Others (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRemaking a Life: How Women Living with HIV/AIDS Confront Inequality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfter the Protests Are Heard: Enacting Civic Engagement and Social Transformation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBecoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWe Are All the Same: A Story of a Boy's Courage and a Mother's Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Undfriending My Ex: and Other Things I'll Never Do Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSkid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSay The Wrong Thing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5There Will Be Lobster: Memoir of a Midlife Crisis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnd Yet They Persisted: How American Women Won the Right to Vote Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFires in Our Lives: Advice for Teachers from Today's High School Students Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Token: Common Sense Ideas for Increasing Diversity in Your Organization Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings100,000 First Bosses: My Unlikely Path as a 22-Year-Old Lawmaker Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Faith and Politics: How the Moral Values Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Casting Lots: Creating a Family in a Beautiful, Broken World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Every Idea is a Good Idea: Be Creative Anytime, Anywhere Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMake a Move: How to Stop Wavering and Make Decisions in a Disorienting World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInvisible Man Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dancing With Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Ain't Marching Anymore: Dissenters, Deserters, and Objectors to America's Wars Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage, and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Mormon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Summer of Fall: Gravity is a bitch, but I'm still standing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Writing into the Wound: Understanding trauma, truth, and language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Choice: Escaping the Past and Embracing the Possible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love, Lucy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for I'm Still Here
124 ratings14 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thought provoking and well put together. Thank undo much Austin! I enjoyed this
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was an excellent read. The conversation from the perspective of a black woman who can speak from the perspective of the business world, the church world, and one that understands the true roots of America is very important in 21st century western culture. This work will one day be required reading in universities.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I started listening and couldn’t stop! Excellent storytelling, personable, truthful, blunt, unapologetically black, well informed from both personal experience and research. I have a lot of notes and a lot of things to reflect on an I particularly liked when she talked about the moment she realized that she had to contribute to the cause & she couldn’t live her life without helping to seek justice for Black folk... Love the Christ motivation, “Jesus was incarcerated”! - must-read (or should i say a must-listen) I’m sure I’ll be back for another peak at some point.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A book with such a powerful message on being a black intelligent woman in the workplace that has to continue to affirm her identity and values. It was eye opening to the impact race still has in our society especially in the workplace.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is a book that is beautifully written and doesn't hold back any truths.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Listen if you’d like to become an advocate for change
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spectacular and accessible. My Latine husband and I are grateful for the perspective and the quality of information, both personal and empirical, that gives a more complete picture of what our Black siblings need to navigate the United States.
I've learned more about what is important in my own fight for justice and, thanks to the wisdom found in this book, know how to be a better ally and where to direct my energies. Thank you, Austin. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Austin told her story with bravery and dignity and I am better for having the privilege of hearing it. Now to go and do!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great Read! Austin has the unique talent of bringing you into her world! I laughed, got mad, re-thought about endless elements of our culture that still leave me stumped to this day but it was so comforting to experience it from this remarkable storyteller’s viewpoint! I highly recommend!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5There’s a space in her journey for all of us. School, church, work and the world at large , it’s so relatable. I didn’t laugh because it’s not trying to pull a “ there, there “ comedy blanket over reality. But I note with happiness that I did not cry, I simply took it all in and acknowledged the truth of her words. Loved the evocative, “day in the life” sequence- it was inspired.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A must read, required reading for all. This gave voice to my spirit. I just loved it
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The black experience captured in a personal and yet textbook-like instructive manner. Grateful to have been able to soak up the authors voice and her inner stories and see myself in the mirror in her stories of white people.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is important and needs to be required reading, both for black women operating in white spaces and for the white people who want to know what it’s like to be black when everything else around you is white.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Powerfully written memoir, every white person should read this book.