Author Austin Channing Brown C’06 (center)
Austin Channing Brown C’06 was purposely given a masculine name at birth so future employers would assume she was a white man, her parents told her when she was seven.
In her new book, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, Channing Brown explores the realities of growing up black in a white world.
The book, which shot to the top 20 on Amazon’s Best Sellers list within weeks of its release, even caught the attention of Chelsea Clinton who tweeted in May: “Just ordered @austinchannings #imstillhere and can’t wait to read it.”
A business management major at North Park, Channing Brown also has a master’s degree in social justice from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan.
During a recent interview with WTTW’s Chicago Tonight, Brown spoke about the message she hopes her book sends.
“I know what it is to be a black girl trying to navigate spaces that are predominantly white,” Channing Brown said. “I would be heartbroken if black women picked up this book and didn’t feel seen and heard, if they didn’t feel it was truthful, if they didn’t read it and think, ‘Yup, I’ve been in that situation.’”