I'm Still Here

This book speaks of moving forward regardless of overwhelming despondency. This is another book that highlights my complete lack of experience in the hopelessness of being black in white supremacist America. The author says, “Perfection is demanded of Blackness before mercy or grace.” Why is it so much easier for black individuals to call out their own minute privileges than it is for white people to call out their many? Every black author I have read that has described any part of their existence in blackness has added a disclaimer of how their life has been privileged in some way. And I know they aren't qualifying this for their black readers, because their black readers aren't expecting them to have checked off a certain amount of disadvantage to be black enough to speak on their experience. This book is in the same category of necessary reading as Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. While the experience of racism is similar between these books, the female vs. male, and Christian vs. atheist perspectives make them equally necessary in my opinion. Regardless of your worldview and religion, black lives matter and representation in positions of power matter. Read this.