Racial battle fatigue is a term coined in 2003 to describe the psychosocial stress responses from being a racially oppressed group member in society and on a historically White campus. The term was introduced by William A. Smith, a professor in the Division of Ethnic Studies and Department of Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Utah. The framework intends to offer a lens to better understand racial undertones of a campus environment and educational experiences for people of color. Smith's research was originally conducted on Black faculty, both men and women, and then on Black college students, prior to a more focused examination on African American men. Since this earlier period of research, racial battle fatigue scholarship has been used to include other racially marginalized groups. The phenomenon builds on existing research connecting African Americans and other people of color with oppression and discrimination experienced at historically White institutions. Smith incorporates literature on combat trauma and combat stress syndrome to help understand the effects of managing hostile environments and the ensuing persistent stress.
Research on African American male students
For a person of color, being on the receiving end of racial slights can manifest in an unabating balance of time and energy in determining if they are motivated by a racist intent and if they are worthy of responding to. Smith stated that many African American boys and adults "will perceive their environment as extremely stressful, exhausting, and diminishing to their senses of control, comfort, and meaning while eliciting feelings of loss, ambiguity, strain, frustration, and injustice" because of chronic racial microaggressions and overt racism (also called, racial macroaggressions). The accumulation of emotional and physiological symptoms resulting from subtle and overt forms of racial verbal and nonverbal microaggressions at the societal, interpersonal, and institutional level can lead to traumatic psychological and physiological stress symptoms.
Psychological and physiological symptoms of racial battle fatigue
Psychological symptoms can include but are not limited to: depression, chronic anxiety, anger, frustration, shock, disturbed sleep, disappointment, resentment, emotional or social withdrawal, intrusive thoughts or images, avoidance, helplessness, and fear. Acceptance of racist attributions, or internalized racism, may also be a psychosocial response. Physiological symptoms such as high blood pressure, headaches, increased breathing and heart rate in anticipation of racial conflict, upset stomach, ulcers, fatigue, exhaustion, and muscle tension around the neck, shoulders, and head may be present due to the persistent nature of the stress experienced. Clark and colleagues proposed that these stress responses are also related to cardiovascular reactivity and higher rates of hypertension among African Americans. Moreover, prolonged activation of sympathetic responses may result in higher resting systolic blood pressure and increases in mean arterial blood pressure.