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

by Austin Channing Brown

My parents made sure I knew that at any moment when I wasn’t paying attention, when I was just being a person, everything could be interrupted.

This is why the word racist offends “nice white people” so deeply. It challenges their self-identification as good

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious, is to be in a rage almost all the time.

Perfection is demanded of Blackness before mercy or grace or justice can even be considered.

But without people of color in key positions, influencing topics of conversation, content, direction, and vision, whatever diversity is included is still essentially white—it just adds people of color like sprinkles on top. The cake is still vanilla.

It’s not enough to dabble at diversity and inclusion while leaving the existing authority structure in place. Reconciliation demands more.

This is the shadow of hope. Knowing that we may never see the realization of our dreams, and yet still showing up.