Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto

by Tricia Hersey

I love the idea and concept of simply existing and just being for Black folks. The idea of “you gotta be better than those before you,” Black excellence, and the never-ending cycle to be an inspiration and “model” is tiring, unsustainable, and steeped in white supremacy, respectability politics, and wrecks our self-esteem as Black folks. What if we simply saw our birth and living and breathing and connection with ourselves and our families as enough? This deep knowing of our divinity without doing another thing. This is what I hope for so many of us. I give thanks to my father, my closest Ancestor, for showing me how to snatch moments of rest while living within a capitalist system.