Who Gets to Rest? Rest as Social Justice
When I started these messages, my goal was to help others cope with the pandemic. From mid-March through May, my daily posts were designed to offer a break from the bad news and tools for staying grounded and centered during a traumatizing time. One of them is self-care, which includes rest and getting good sleep. These were privileged posts, written from the perspective of one who is navigating the pandemic in a White body. Here's another take on rest.
In addition to COVID-19, we are grappling -- again -- with the legacy of trauma and the ongoing agony caused by over 400 years of White supremacy. And in the context of a pandemic that disproportionately affects them, we are finally starting to pay attention to the impacts of trauma and chronic stress upon our Black siblings. For those who live with these injuries, self care and rest can be an act of resistance as well as a means to healing.
"Our legacy is a legacy of exhaustion," says Tricia Hersey, a performance artist, poet, and founder of The Nap Ministry, an interactive project focused upon rest as resistance. "Rest is a key to connecting to the wisdom of our ancestors and creating a new world. It is pushing back against White supremacy and capitalism."
The Black community in particular needs rest, she says, "because of the weathering of Black bodies from just living and trying to survive, and at the same time experiencing microaggressions every day. If anyone should be sleeping, it's Black people, when you consider how our ancestors built this country with their free labor and no rest. Reparations don't have to look like a check; they can come in the form of rest. Rest is a healing portal into a space where things can be different, a place that's sacred for you where you don't have to deal with microaggressions."
While she endorses protests and social media support, Hersey advocates rest as a means to racial and social justice "because it's counterintuitive and counter-narrative to see slowing down, napping, and rest as a key to our movement for black liberation. But it really is so important because rest disrupts and pushes back and allows space for healing, for invention, for us to be more human. It'll allow us to imagine this new world that we want, this new world that's liberated, that's full of justice, that's a foundation for us to really, truly live our lives."
Have you ever seen rest as "a racial and social justice issue"? It makes sense to me. "Exhausted" is the word my Black family members and friends have used over and over to describe themselves to me. Exhausted from the microaggressions. Exhausted from the fear. Exhausted from grief. Exhausted from trying to tell Whites what it took George Floyd's brutal murder for us to see. Bone weary from doing whatever it takes to get by in our White United States. Exhausted from just trying to survive, and from waiting for this country to even begin to make meaningful change around White supremacy.
I mentioned at the outset that my initial focus on self-care and rest was a privileged one. That's not to say that it wasn't needed; all of us need tools and support to cope with the pandemic, including ways to take a break from the relentless bad news. But maybe that need is a place where those of us who are White can get a small glimpse into the experience of Blacks in this country. We have been living with chronic stress and overwhelming bad news for several months now. Our Black siblings have been living it for over 400 years. They are understandably exhausted from carrying the load.
For those who need support, there is much in the first 80 or so of these posts to help with self-care and rest, including deep breathing (March 31), mindfulness (April 3), sleep hygiene (May 9), self-care and self-compassion (April 8), gratitude (March 24 and April 25), humor (May 16), keeping our balance (May 26), and scent (May 18).
There are also posts about choosing what sustains us (May 13), opting for what's realistic over what's reasonable (May 11), finding motivation (May 12), doing what must be done (May 14), avoiding dangerous distraction (May 26), managing our mood in anxious times (May 7), and paying attention to our senses (March 14 and May 21) and to the teacher nearby (May 8). There are many posts that offer beauty through poetry or fine art, and posts about dance; you can use the search feature on the main page to find them.
We need to gather our strength, all of us. But the time for our Black siblings to rest is so long overdue. We who are White need to take up the task of dismantling White supremacy, and we need to persist. We need to work to end systemic racism today and every day for as long as it takes, knowing that our efforts will always pale in the face of our Black siblings' suffering, but remembering the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: "the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." It will bend when we who live in White bodies put our backs to it. We must do it, and we can do it.
Love,
Nancie/Mom/Mimi/Grandma
In addition to COVID-19, we are grappling -- again -- with the legacy of trauma and the ongoing agony caused by over 400 years of White supremacy. And in the context of a pandemic that disproportionately affects them, we are finally starting to pay attention to the impacts of trauma and chronic stress upon our Black siblings. For those who live with these injuries, self care and rest can be an act of resistance as well as a means to healing.
"Our legacy is a legacy of exhaustion," says Tricia Hersey, a performance artist, poet, and founder of The Nap Ministry, an interactive project focused upon rest as resistance. "Rest is a key to connecting to the wisdom of our ancestors and creating a new world. It is pushing back against White supremacy and capitalism."
The Black community in particular needs rest, she says, "because of the weathering of Black bodies from just living and trying to survive, and at the same time experiencing microaggressions every day. If anyone should be sleeping, it's Black people, when you consider how our ancestors built this country with their free labor and no rest. Reparations don't have to look like a check; they can come in the form of rest. Rest is a healing portal into a space where things can be different, a place that's sacred for you where you don't have to deal with microaggressions."
While she endorses protests and social media support, Hersey advocates rest as a means to racial and social justice "because it's counterintuitive and counter-narrative to see slowing down, napping, and rest as a key to our movement for black liberation. But it really is so important because rest disrupts and pushes back and allows space for healing, for invention, for us to be more human. It'll allow us to imagine this new world that we want, this new world that's liberated, that's full of justice, that's a foundation for us to really, truly live our lives."
Have you ever seen rest as "a racial and social justice issue"? It makes sense to me. "Exhausted" is the word my Black family members and friends have used over and over to describe themselves to me. Exhausted from the microaggressions. Exhausted from the fear. Exhausted from grief. Exhausted from trying to tell Whites what it took George Floyd's brutal murder for us to see. Bone weary from doing whatever it takes to get by in our White United States. Exhausted from just trying to survive, and from waiting for this country to even begin to make meaningful change around White supremacy.
I mentioned at the outset that my initial focus on self-care and rest was a privileged one. That's not to say that it wasn't needed; all of us need tools and support to cope with the pandemic, including ways to take a break from the relentless bad news. But maybe that need is a place where those of us who are White can get a small glimpse into the experience of Blacks in this country. We have been living with chronic stress and overwhelming bad news for several months now. Our Black siblings have been living it for over 400 years. They are understandably exhausted from carrying the load.
For those who need support, there is much in the first 80 or so of these posts to help with self-care and rest, including deep breathing (March 31), mindfulness (April 3), sleep hygiene (May 9), self-care and self-compassion (April 8), gratitude (March 24 and April 25), humor (May 16), keeping our balance (May 26), and scent (May 18).
There are also posts about choosing what sustains us (May 13), opting for what's realistic over what's reasonable (May 11), finding motivation (May 12), doing what must be done (May 14), avoiding dangerous distraction (May 26), managing our mood in anxious times (May 7), and paying attention to our senses (March 14 and May 21) and to the teacher nearby (May 8). There are many posts that offer beauty through poetry or fine art, and posts about dance; you can use the search feature on the main page to find them.
We need to gather our strength, all of us. But the time for our Black siblings to rest is so long overdue. We who are White need to take up the task of dismantling White supremacy, and we need to persist. We need to work to end systemic racism today and every day for as long as it takes, knowing that our efforts will always pale in the face of our Black siblings' suffering, but remembering the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: "the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." It will bend when we who live in White bodies put our backs to it. We must do it, and we can do it.
Love,
Nancie/Mom/Mimi/Grandma
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