For Colored Girls in Academia Who Have Burned Out / When Rest Is Enough
Author’s note: This piece is unapologetically for and about Black women. It contributes to a body of work that is meant to be an in-group conversation among such women. Content warning: suicide.
Black women in the academy need to take several seats. Not all at once, mind you, lest the ivory tower collapse from the absence of our labor. But we are doing far too much, and we need to rest. This is not optional; it is imperative.
Several times over the last year, I have found myself in spaces with other women of color in academia talking about fatigue and burnout. These were completely different groups in various contexts, but many of the same topics organically emerged in our conversations: how unbelievably busy we were, the pressure to be excellent while our colleagues did the bare minimum, and the oppressive climate of our institutions. Recently, those conversations have turned more somber. We struggled to stay virtually connected amid COVID-19. We collectively mourned Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the countless other people whose names have already fallen out of the limelight or whose stories did not go viral. We longed for reprieve from the seemingly relentless vicarious trauma.
