Summary

In Chapter 1, “White People Are Exhausting” (11), the author, Austin Channing Brown, begins with a memory from childhood in which she was checking out books when a librarian asked her if her library card was really hers. This sort of confusion was common in her life because her first name, Austin, is traditionally a male name, but there are racial connotations as well. Though her mother had previously told her that she was given the name because it was her grandmother's maiden name, at the library that day, she asked her to elaborate. Her mother explained of the name, “We knew that anyone who saw it before meeting you would assume you are a white man. One day you will have to apply for jobs. We just wanted to make sure you could make it to the interview” (15). Brown explains that her name still...