A review by chloe_liese
I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown

5.0

“But I am not impressed with America’s progress. 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 “achievements.” This is how it always should have been. Many call it progress, but I do not consider it praiseworthy that only within the last generation did America reach the baseline for human decency. As comedian Chris Rock says, I suppose these things were progress for white people, but damn. I hope there is progress I can sincerely applaud on the horizon. Because the extrajudicial killing of Black people is still too familiar. Because the racist rhetoric that Black people are lazier, more criminal, more undeserving than white people is still too familiar. Because the locking up of a disproportionate number of Black bodies is still too familiar. Because the beating of Black people in the streets is still too familiar. History is collapsing on itself once again.”

Mandatory reading, especially for white Christians and well-meaning liberals [raises hand]. There is so much more work to be done, and Ms. Channing has eloquently laid it out for us.

Highly recommend the audio (read by the author). It’s important to normalize ourselves to being told hard truths by Black voices not just on paper but truly *hearing* them.