Black fatigue refers to the profound mental, physical, and spiritual exhaustion experienced by Black people due to the cumulative stress of enduring systemic racism, daily microaggressions, and racial injustices. It is the weariness born from "the day-to-day small acts of aggression, or small acts of disrespect" that Black individuals face constantly, along with the pressure to prove their worth and the emotional toll of witnessing ongoing racial violence and injustice
. Mary-Frances Winters, a key scholar on this topic, defines black fatigue as "repeated variations of stress that result in extreme exhaustion and cause mental, physical, and spiritual maladies that are passed down from generation to generation." This fatigue arises from systemic racism in workplaces and society, lack of representation, being tokenized as a community spokesperson, and the frustration of communicating these inequalities to others
. The symptoms of black fatigue can include psychological distress such as anxiety, depression, anger, emotional withdrawal, and physiological effects like high blood pressure, headaches, and muscle tension. This condition is related to what is sometimes called "racial battle fatigue," which describes the psychosocial stress responses from being a member of a racially oppressed group
. In summary, black fatigue is a chronic, exhausting response to the persistent racial discrimination and systemic inequities that Black people endure, affecting their overall well-being and passed down through generations
