Rest as a Radical Act: A Black Executive's Guide with Dr. Nsenga Burton

BEP Narrator: 00:00:02

A Black Executive Perspective now presents Need to Know

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with the award winning hyphenated Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Dr.

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Burton.

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What do we need to know?

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Dr. Nsenga Burton: Good morning and

welcome to Need to Know with Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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I am Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Today I want to talk to you a little

bit about, uh, rest as a radical thing

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for Black people, particularly when

we're talking about Black executives,

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people who are working, um, in the

higher echelons of corporate America,

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uh, people who are, you know, Leaders

administrators, part of the C suite.

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Um, and especially, um, in

addition to people, we already

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think of need rest, right?

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Those, uh, uh, frontline workers,

people who we engage with all all the

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time, whether it's at the gas station

or your grocery store would have you.

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But I'm here to say that everybody needs

rest, whether your job is a physical 1 or

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a job that requires a lot of mental energy

and a lot of intellectual fortitude.

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If you will rest is a radical thing.

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And there's a, there are a lot

of people in general, black women

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scholars, specifically, you're doing

work in this area and talking about it.

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Um, there's a, um, on social media,

there's something called the NAP ministry.

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If you are not.

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Following that on social

media, you absolutely should.

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But 1 of the things that they are

talking about ministry is the need for

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people to recharge to rest and recharge.

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So, even today, when we're taking this

episode, it's the day before Thanksgiving.

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Even though a lot of us, including

myself, don't buy the dominant

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narrative right of Thanksgiving.

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We're like, okay, we'll just go along

with this made up holiday again.

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So we can get a couple of days off

because we know that it's, it's made up

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and it's not really based in anything

real historically factual or anything.

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So, um, but, hey, if I can get a

couple of days off to spend with

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my family, then I'll take it.

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You know, we do a lot of

that in the black community.

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So, I wanted to say that, even

if you don't believe in the

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idea, or, you know, the dominant

narrative of Thanksgiving, which is

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real and valid, you should at least

take the time that you have to rest.

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Um, and to recharge and so I know a

lot of us spend a lot of time running

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around cooking all day and all night

and serving people and having scores

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of folks come over and yet, you

know, dish duty and, you know, you

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got to clean up and all the things.

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Um, so I'd encourage you to

think about how to do holidays

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a little bit differently.

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Um, you can do, um, you know,

you have, if you can afford it,

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you can have things catered.

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You can use a black owned

business, a black owned caterer.

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Um, that's another that's a way

that you can not only feed yourself,

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but also feed your soul and help

people while you're doing it.

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Um, and then, you know, it

doesn't have to be so big.

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We have a couple of my friends

and I were talking about that.

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Um.

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A few days ago about, you know, it

doesn't have to, you don't have to have

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the turkey, and the beef, and meat,

and ham, and the beef, and the ham,

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and the turkey, and the, you know,

it doesn't have to be 25 options.

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Um, you know, a lot of folks

are vegetarian and vegan now,

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so you definitely want to

have one of those options.

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Um, and you know, for the people

who aren't, we're very clear on,

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we're not vegan or vegetarian,

you want to have a meat option.

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And, you know, based on religion,

some people don't eat pork or

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what have you, but, you know, your

family, you know, your people, but

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you don't have to have 20B items.

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It doesn't have to be a throw

down, especially because Christmas

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is right around the corner.

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And even if you don't celebrate Christmas,

Kwanzaa is right around the corner.

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All these things are

right around the corner.

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We have the opportunity to do that.

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And you have more time to do it because

many of us are working, including myself.

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Tony and I are working today, right?

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We're traveling and working.

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I work in the up until the day

before Thanksgiving, right?

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And so, you know, this idea that you

got to work up until the day before

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Thanksgiving, and then, you know, provide

the spread in honor of this fake holiday.

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It just doesn't really

make a whole lot of sense.

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So, my needs to know what I need you

to know is that it's okay to rest.

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It's okay to tell relatives.

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Listen, I have been working really hard.

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2024 has been really tough.

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So, we're not going to do Thanksgiving

this year, but I got you on Christmas,

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you know, it's okay to be like, listen,

I got 4 hours to cook something.

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You know, everybody brings something

that we do a lot of that anyway, in our

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community, people we trust because, you

know, we don't eat everybody's everything,

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but, you know, it's okay to allow a little

bit of the responsibilities to other folks

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and to use the people who are in your

household to help make things easier.

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Um.

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So, I need, you know, it's

okay to say, I need rest.

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I need time to recharge and to use this

Thanksgiving vacation uses Thanksgiving

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celebration as a vacation or time

to kind of just recharge and to get

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that 4 day weekend that you need so

that you can be your whole self and

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you can actually make it to the end

of: 2024

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Theme roll!

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Um, we barrel towards New Year's Eve.

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Following the Thanksgiving tradition.

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So give yourself a break.

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You don't have to have a ton of Christmas

decorations or holiday decorations.

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You don't have to have

25 options on your menu.

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You don't have to invite people over.

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You don't, you don't have to go nowhere.

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Like you don't.

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So if you need time to rest

and relax, uh, take it.

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And that's what I need.

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Need you to know I'm Dr.

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Nsenga Burton.

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Enjoy this time off, uh, spend it

how you like, but please think about

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giving yourself a little bit of

rest so you can be your whole self

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and your best version of yourself,

uh, for the remainder of the year.

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Okay.

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BEP Narrator: A black

executive perspective.