racial battle fatigue

n.

Stress and anxiety caused by constantly dealing with both overtly racist actions and subtle references to one's race.

Example Citations:

"The results of our study suggest that the notion of racial battle fatigue could be a very real phenomenon that might explain how individuals can go from the experience of racism to the experience of a serious mental health disorder," said Soto. "While the term is certainly not trying to say that the conditions are exactly what soldiers face on a battlefield, it borrows from the idea that stress is created in chronically unsafe or hostile environments."

—"Discrimination creates racial battle fatigue for African-Americans," Penn State Live, March 3, 2011

Instead of such overt racism, many blacks in Utah County experience "racial battle fatigue," a term that describes how some minorities can feel worn down by those daily reminders that one's skin color is different and that they are members of a tiny minority. Smith said the problem isn't simply the frequent incidents but the constant vigilance she feels she must maintain when faced with such incidents.

—Tad Walch, " Blacks find pluses, minuses: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/695245858/Blacks-find-pluses-minuses.html," Deseret News, January 21, 2008

Earliest Citation:

Smith says that blacks continue to defend against incredulous critics, who charge that no self-respecting black American would join a racist church, and against those white members who are still suspicious of the "seed of Cain."

"There is a psychological toll taken on black folks for this kind of work," Smith said, which exacts a sort of "racial battle fatigue."

—Shane Johnson, " White Wash: http://www.rickross.com/reference/mormon/mormon213.html," Salt Lake City Weekly, December 16, 2004

Notes:

Here's a much earlier citation, although it's hard to tell from the context whether it's using the phrase in precisely the same sense as I've defined it here:

Kendriks wished he were Jewish — not the ignorant sort who trusted in the abracadabral magic of bans, but a real American Jew who could never be liked nor killed; who was heir to so much racial battle fatigue, he possessed a fantastic dignity, a trust of time.

—David Shetzline, Heckletooth 3: http://books.google.com/books?id=4e9ZAAAAIAAJ&q=%22racial+battle+fatigue, Random House, January 1, 1969 (approx)

Related Words:

diversity fatigue

DWB

flying while Muslim

foodcourt multiculturalism

racial profiling

reverse Bradley effect

Categories:

Anger and Anxiety

Race