After seeing author Tricia Hersey interviewed on TV, I put her latest book, Rest Is Resistance, on my ever-growing booklist. The book asserts that American grind culture is the conclusion of white supremacy and capitalism, especially for Black people.
I’d always been immersed in the grind, but had been too busy hustling to analyze the situation. Starting in childhood, my parents and other older relatives preached the survival strategy of working twice as hard to get half as much as white people, but never seeing that that hustle was a never-ending, life-shortening detriment, not really a healthy, sustainable way to proceed.
At a few dead-end jobs, I remember feeling like an insignificant cog in the great machinery of the organization. At the best jobs, I believed I made a difference in the betterment of society.
In the end, whether the job was dead-end or not, the grind thrived. Bodies, especially bodies of color, were expected to grind and sacrifice our flesh to the secular gods of capitalism and white supremacy.
And here I thought I was free. When I was an independent contractor, either as an insurance agent or a customer service representative, I’d taken myself out of the machine. Or so I thought.
I’d inserted myself into a different part of the machine. More enjoyable since I loved setting my own schedule. Midday yoga class, followed by lunch with a glass of wine. Civilized. Yet, I still felt compelled to grind.
Work hard, play hard. Right?
They told us our life expectancy was lower because of health inequities. That certainly factors into Black people’s overall health. Yet how many of those reports/studies looked at the overall expectation that Black people must grind until our bones turned to dust? How we have to neglect our health for the capitalistic gain of others who don’t look like us, but look down on us? From that view, apparently it’s challenging to see our humanity.
I’m a naturally organized person who’s good at both writing and math. Those skills alone can be applied to a vast majority of jobs, which I’ve done in order to make a living. Yet, for the most part, the most enjoyable parts of my life have been outside of work.
Teaching math and science was a notable exception. For many years, the only reason I sustained being a teacher was the much needed, much earned time off. Having a creative outlet in which to teach students was always yoked with doing a lot of bullshit, decided by people who either couldn’t teach or wouldn’t dare take the cut in pay to do so.
Such is life. I always told my students to be lifelong learners. My latest lesson will be to remove myself from the grind.