The discourses that fuel burnout do not affect everyone equally.
In her Buzzfeed essay, This is What Black Burnout Feels Like, Tiana Clark asks, “If the American dream isn’t possible for upwardly mobile white people anymore, then what am I even striving for?” Among other things, the essay highlights the fact that burnout isn’t a new concept, just a new word. Many non-white folks have long been familiar with what it’s like to be tired all the time. The effects of inherited stress and trauma are real, and racial trauma is not only inherited; racial trauma happens in real time, every day.
It happens when a black man is murdered by police or a black woman gunned down in her bed. It also happens during a day full of microaggressions in a predominantly white workplace. It happens when black women are paid cents on the dollar for the same job compared to white men, passed up for promotions, or told not be be so “angry,” or “bossy.”
It’s embedded in workplace cultures that require black and brown folks to tailor their identities and presentation to fit the context, actively work to avoid being stereotyped or tokenized, and continually do the mental calculus to figure out whether to call out injustice or choose not to pick this particular fight.
Doing that sort of work day in and day out leaves people more vulnerable to burn out.
The injury is compounded by messages promoted by those same, oppressive systems that if you aren’t where you want to be in your career, or financially, it must be your fault, because of course this is a meritocracy. Just work harder.
Effective anti-burnout work must include work to identify these discourses and their effects, and it must include work to understand the damage and injustice embedded in those effects.
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Kathryn Stinson
I help passionate people identify and dismantle the cultural drivers of burnout, so they can serve their big visions without burning out. Find information and strategies for dealing with burnout here, or reach out to work with me.
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