In Search of Rest and Resistance between Dwindling Strength and Vulnerability

Posted on February 25, 2025 in Blog Posts

Authors:

Shari Lynn Robinson
An illustration of a Black woman embracing herself as an act of rest and self-love.

I am writing this blog—my first ever—as an essential and cathartic somatic practice for my ongoing efforts toward personal and professional balance, specifically, rest, resistance (I am intentionally not using the word resilience; they are not the same!), and self-love against what Tricia Hersey refers to as “the grind” in her in her book, We Will Rest! (2024). I am also writing this with the hope that it will benefit others, particularly other Black women, as we collectively continue to live and work toward the eventual eradication of social and systemic injustices.

Like many Black women across the globe, this balance is a life-long experiment, and so, I continue to “grind.” Specifically, I hold many simultaneous grinds. My love-led responsibilities include being a mother, an aunt, an eldest daughter, an older sister, a wife, and a mentor to many former students. I also have several paying side hustles. However, for my bread-and-butter job, I lead inclusive excellence (IE) efforts and initiatives at an institution of higher education in Minnesota. It is worth noting here that, even though IE predates the higher education landscape of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and its many offshoots (e.g., IDEA, JEDI), this year marks the twentieth anniversary of the introduction of the AACU’s IE framework. Two decades seems like a long time for us to still be here but here we are.

Shortly after accepting my current role, I conducted an informal survey to see who else holds roles similar to mine. Perhaps unsurprisingly to many of you, I found that most people in similar positions are Black women, with a handful of Latin@ and Indigenous women, as well as a few gay/trans/nonbinary individuals. The number has increased over time. (I hold conflicting thoughts on why the practice of hiring primarily BIPOC women and others with marginalized identities to lead these efforts should be interrogated, but that’s a topic for another blog post.) For most of us, this work is not just a bread-and-butter job. Many of us have described it as “soul-feeding” and “generationally sustaining”—i.e., necessary work. However, it is not easy work by any means, and it is impossible to lead these institutional initiatives and efforts without being affected mentally and physically, especially when working with others who do not see the value and importance of IE because of their own lack of knowledge or religious and/or political views. Nevertheless, cautiously and, in my case, trepidatiously, those of us working in IE continue to lead while navigating a myriad of conflicting emotions and experiences.

In the current political landscape, this has only become more challenging. It is not just those working on scientific research who must now avoid using certain words, but all of us. Many IE professionals are engaging in a similar morale-sucking switcheroo with our titles in the hope of thwarting political disturbances and doxing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these efforts are not working.

Understandably, some of my colleagues relate to this self-professed angry Black woman’s reflections. Others, yours included, are finding it increasingly difficult to balance being a strong Black woman with showing vulnerability (as I am doing by writing this blog!). We are deeply saddened and afraid. Sad that humanity has not learned from and chosen to self-correct from our historical ills. Afraid of losing our bread-and-butter jobs and thus being unable to continue our love-led responsibilities, which require a steady income.

Not too long ago, before the results of the 2024 U.S. presidential election were confirmed, I vulnerably expressed to a colleague that I was not hopeful things would go “our” way. In return, this colleague told me I “need to smile more,” as they believed it would “help break down the defenses of the people I work with and have them show more receptiveness to the work I lead.” Indeed, here we are. I experience many racial microaggressions in the different spaces I inhabit, and I am usually able to release them back to the sender. However, I have not been able to forget this exchange, so I am sharing it here as part of my efforts to, hopefully, be able to do so.

We keep hearing from our institutional administrators that our “important mission-driven work” will continue without them being able to make any promises about the security of our jobs. In the meantime, my work—more specifically, the “grind”—continues, but so must my radical need for rest and resistance. Off to do some of it.

Resources for Further Learning:

Headshot of Shari Lynn Robinson

About the author:

Shari Lynn Robinson (she/her) is the sole proprietor for The Traveling Diversity Professor which, for nearly three decades, has developed and provided strategic and equity-based knowledge and skill-building educational opportunities for institutions and nonprofit organizations across the United States. With educational training in social work and anthropology, she also has decades of experience in higher education, which includes full-time and adjunct faculty roles developing and teaching social work and anthropology-focused courses on anti-oppressive clinical practices, TBLGQIA+, and older adults. Additionally, she has held positions in faculty development, curriculum design, critical community service-learning, diversity, equity and inclusion, and inclusive excellence at universities and colleges across Michigan, Massachusetts, and Minnesota where she now resides. In her spare but rare time, Shari enjoys cooking and eating spicy dishes followed by ice cream, though she often enjoys dessert first. She also enjoys growing plants and vegetables, watching British detective mysteries, reading, traveling, and consuming all things Star Trek and Afrofuturism. She can be reached at diversityprof@gmail.com.

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Header image is a detail of This is Harlem by Jacob Lawrence. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. For more information, click here.

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