Lunar Reflections LLC

Someone shared this CNN article about Tamiah Brevard-Rodriguez defending her doctoral dissertation after delivering her son in her wife’s Maserati. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and here’s what I see in the picture below. ??I see the glamorization of Bl@ck women having to push past exhaustion and discomfort to get the things they want. I don’t have children, but I have 10 friends who are pregnant and who have given birth in the last two months, and they’ve all described how mentally and physically exhausting childbirth was. So I can only imagine what it is like to compartmentalize bringing a child into this world so that you could finally be done with your dissertation and then finally focus on your family and newborn. ?? I also see society reinforcing the trope that Bl@ck women are superheroes who don’t need rest, who don’t deserve accommodations, and who can bear it all. There’s so much more I can say from an intersectional lens as it relates to maternal mortality of Bl@ck women, and Tamiah is a Bl@ck woman with a wife. But my primary focus of this post is to center on how normal it is for people to praise Bl@ck women for pushing to the point of exhaustion. As someone who also pushed through very tumultuous times to complete my dissertation in 3 years, I know why she decided not to reschedule her defense. But that’s my point: our safety, comfort, and rest shouldn’t be a “reward” after completing all the major things on our to-do list. I did it before I started my sabbatical. I pushed to do so much because I thought once my sabbatical began, I could finally rest. If I’m being honest, I haven’t even been fully resting. Not because I don’t want to, but because 1) I have bills to pay and 2) there have been people constantly asking me to do things, people assuming that I am doing nothing and must be fully rested, so now I can do the things they think I should. I can’t tell you how often I’ve been asked, “Why are you so tired? I thought you were on sabbatical.” Or have I been told, “Oh wow, you’re on a sabbatical? Must be nice,” as if all of my responsibilities are put on hold, and I am rich, so I can lounge around all day and do nothing? Not to mention navigating neurodivergence. While I’m so happy Tamiah got her dissertation out the way and will be graduating and also that both she and her son are healthy, I encourage everyone else to reframe their thinking around Bl@ck women's need for rest. Exhaustion and “pushing through” have been normalized for all women, but when it comes to Bl@ck women, it’s also commodified and capitalized (all the major news outlets are getting views from this story). Bl@ck women deserve rest without guilt or explanation. We all do, especially now after back-to-back traumatic world events.

I had such a fun time recording with Chotsani Sackey of Lunar Reflections LLC! Look out for the episode next week! In the mean time, check out her website (https://www.cjsackey.love/) and her course (https://solo.to/cjsackey). Check out the episode for a chance to have a one-on-one session with her! Subscribe to our podcast Begin, Build, Blossom!