CDP Resource: Listening & Learning with "I" Statements

This resource is an accompaniment to our podcast, “I” Statements, where people with different identities come together to share their own beliefs, experiences, and perspectives, demonstrating both the power and the possibility inherent in communicating across difference.

Episode transcript

Episode Overview

In this episode, Rachel, Rheeda, and Tony talk about rest, including how they think about rest during this historic moment characterized by a pandemic and widespread protests against anti-Black racism. They also share where and when they experience rest and ask, rest: what is it good for?

Discussion Questions

• How would you describe the relationship between rest and activism? Rest and social identities? Rest and productivity?
• Thinking about what you’ve learned from people in your life (e.g., family, friends, teachers, co-workers) and the media (e.g., news, movies, songs), what messages have you received about the importance of rest? Do these messages suggest that rest is equally important for everyone, or that some people deserve rest more than others?
• What do you do and/or where do you go to get rest?

Writing Prompt

What kind of role should rest play in our society? What would society (e.g., laws, norms, workplaces, schedules) need to be like in order to make that possible?

Related Readings

• Rachel Cargle insists rest is the real revolution for Black women (Fleming, 2019)
• When dismantling power dismantles you instead (Lalanne-Tauzia, 2018)
• Why ‘stillness’ is crucial for your brain during this pandemic (Yin, 2020)
• In our own words: Institutional betrayals (Dutt-Ballerstadt, 2020)