Even Me: A Journey of Self-Discovery, Cultural Humility, and Commitment to Anti-Racist Practice
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 226
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2025
Pages: 1180
Choose Your Format
$24.99 USD
Ebook
$12.00 USD
Even Me gathers threads from a life lived across five decades, tracing how the author's identities-visible and felt-have steadied, unsettled, and propelled her journey as a social worker. This auto-ethnography is both a record of experience and an invitation: to reflect on one's own journey, to consider the power each person holds, the questions carried, and the curiosity that invites connection across differences.
At its core, the book chronicles a journey of self-discovery, cultural humility, and anti-racism in practice. While rooted in social work, its meaning extends to anyone who shows up in the world with a desire to learn from moments of self-discovery.
Throughout the narrative, cultural humility is foregrounded as both practice and stance. Learning arises through listening, grappling with power dynamics, and recognizing how systems shape what is known.
The book challenges the old division between anti-racism and daily work, arguing that weaving anti-racist commitments into every interaction, decision, and policy is not an optional extension of helping professions but their heartbeat.
Ultimately, Even Me is about embodying the standards we invite in others: modeling cultural humility, embracing accountability, and staying present with people who carry histories as heavy as one's own. It is honest, imperfect, and hopeful-a testament to the power within each person to heal, to grow, and to act for justice.
Dr. Kenya Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Social Work and Sociology at the University of Houston-Downtown, where she designs and teaches online and hybrid courses with a keen focus on accessibility, engagement, and social justice. With more than two decades of experience teaching virtually and face-to-face, she utilizes student-centered learning experiences that invite inquiry, reflection, and real-world application.
Dr. Johnson’s teaching spans undergraduate and graduate programs in sociology and social work, where she has lectured, advised, and mentored students at the BSW and MSW levels. Her pedagogy emphasizes research literacy, critical reflection, and experiential learning, and she actively contributes to curriculum development, delivers engaging lectures, supervises field practicum experiences, and supports student research endeavors. Among the courses she teaches are Urban Practice I, HBSE II (Human Behavior in the Social Environment II), Intro to Social Work and Social Welfare, and Practice with Children and Adolescents.
She also developed and teaches Engaging with Cultural Humility, a course designed to cultivate antiracism change, cultural humility, and the application of ADEI—antiracism, diversity, equity, and inclusion—theoretical frameworks to both practice and research. Engaging with Cultural Humility centers on identifying facilitators of antiracism change, expanding knowledge and skills related to cultural humility, and fostering critical self-reflection. Through this course, Dr. Johnson guides students in applying ADEI frameworks to real-world practice and scholarly inquiry, equipping them with the tools to analyze systems of inequity and to design action-oriented strategies for change. Her work in the classroom reflects a broader commitment to equity and inclusion, which informs her research, service, and community engagement.
Dr. Johnson earned her Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Central Missouri, a Master of Social Work from Saint Louis University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work from the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work. Her work embodies a synthesis of scholarly inquiry, community engagement, and a deep commitment to preparing social workers and sociologists who will lead with integrity, compassion, and a fierce dedication to social justice.