Fighting Educational Injustice, One Nap at a Time

By Joseph Williams Originally appeared in Word in Black It seems counterintuitive: rest as a radical act, a vehicle for educational and social change and racial healing. Yet the connection became real to Shawn Ginwright, a Harvard professor, community organizer, and social activist, one sleepless night back in 2001.& “I was teaching at Santa Clara University” in California, and his wife, Nedra, had just given birth to their daughter, he said. At the same time, “I was the executive director of a nonprofit in Oakland and constantly raising money, and I was leading a series of youth organizing sessions with young people.” Ginwright thought he could power through the increasingly heavy workload. But he couldn’t outrun the run-and-gun pressure he’d piled on himself.  “I woke up in a sweat, and I just couldn’t sleep,” Ginwright& said in a recent interview& with Ed., a journal of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. “I was so stressed and worried about failing to raise money, not being good enough at teaching, and, most importantly, not being there for my daughter. I walked into the living room and broke down crying.”& He tried to suppress it — “One voice, the strong baritone Black...