My family has always told a story about how my great grandma was always moving and doing things and the reason she died was because “she had finally sat down and stopped one day.” And as long as she was moving and doing things, she was good and healthy. The rest is killed her.
And as a grown ass lady, I had to refute that story because it’s a bunch of shit! Ain’t no 60-70 year old woman who grew up in the height of Jim Crow, picked cotton, went through the Civil Rights Movement, and raised 7-8 kids want to continue to work herself into the ground everyday til the day she died! Ain’t no damn way that woman didn’t want a break! Also, she died of gangrene. She got an infection, didn’t take care of it, her body couldn’t fight off the infection (probably because of the fucking stress!), and died. And nobody knows it because they have been telling lies all these years.
The truth of the matter is that everyone in this damn family benefited from her labor TO DEATH! My great grandma raised so many kids because they kept dumping them kids over there while they ran the streets. My great grandma bailed niggas out of jail because yall kept fucking going. Let me tell yall something, if the first time someone gets a chance to rest they die, then yall ran that person DOWN TO THE GROUND!
As black people, we have to stopped perpetuating generational lies! My great grandma and my grandma were conditioned to be docile and agreeable. They never said no and they never complained. But I KNOW the women were tired. Hell, if I had to watch 20+ bad ass kids everyday at 70-something years old, I would sit down and die too! Tf?! Black women deserve rest, yall! And stories that reflect their truth! Stop saying black women loved struggle and labor when that is all that was given to them.
