REST is the new WORK

Last year, I wrote this widely circulated piece about the collective exhaustion women of color in leadership face as we both navigate white supremacy culture and try to dismantle it. In the year since, we faced new demands created by COVID-19 and the country’s racial reckoning. We became even more critical caregivers — for our democracy, for our organizations, and for our families, friends and neighbors. Women of color are the linchpin of every institution in America, so fundamental that we are taken for granted. Black women in particular, as this piece highlights, get thanks, but little else.

While women of color may recognize the systemic and structural barriers created by white supremacy and patriarchy, we often don’t appreciate how pervasive they are until we’re in key leadership roles. Still, we often see our own exhaustion as an individual failure rather than a function of the systems in which we operate.

Sacrificing ourselves to work comes at a cost to our mental, physical and emotional health and is unsustainable. I know this from personal experience. Last year, I left my role as the President of New American Leaders, unable to find a work-rest balance. I am ashamed to admit this, especially because I encourage women of color to run for office or otherwise lead. But I believe we can’t keep up this pace and need to acknowledge that rest is critical to our work.