Racial Battle Fatigue: The Experiences of Black/African American, Biracial Black, and Multiracial Black Identified Graduate Students

Abstract

Black students attending historically White institutions of higher education experience racism, racial microaggressions, racial stress, and consequent racial battle fatigue (RBF; Franklin et al., 2014). We examined Black counseling and clinical graduate students’ (BGS) experiences of psychological, physiological, and behavioral RBF across their roles as students in class, advisees, and supervisees and differences in RBF experiences by gender and race. Participants were 57 counseling and clinical graduate students who identified as Monoracial, Biracial, or Multiracial Black. One-way, repeated measures analysis of variance results showed that BGS experienced the highest levels of RBF in their student-in-class role, and those experiences differed for women and men. Results suggest that the RBF framework has utility for measuring and further understanding how BGS’ student role and learning contexts influence their postsecondary experiences and how institutions can develop better supports for this student population.

Just ethnic matching? Racial and ethnic minority students and culturally appropriate mental health provision at British universities

“…87, 85). Given the cultural logics at play, much of the research into racial microaggressions and the production of RBF has focused on the “hostile campus racial climates” of historically white universities and colleges in the USA (Woods et al 2021 , G. Wong et al, 2014 ). Nonetheless, as Arday notes, the remit of RBF has now been “expanded within racial discrimination vernacular to describe the negative and racially charged experiences of [REM] people within and beyond the USA” (Arday, 2022 , p. 86).…”

Can academic dentistry become an anti‐racist institution?: Addressing racial battle fatigue and building belonging

“…Racial battle fatigue has been largely applied to examine Black male undergraduate experiences in historically White colleges and universities, Black graduate student experiences in counseling, and Latinx undergraduate student experiences 7,27,30,31 . Although research has focused on the experience of students, it is reasonable to consider that the framework of racial battle fatigue could also help to explain faculty experiences too, especially Black and other minority faculty populations within dental education 32–35 .…”

“…The history of racism, oppression, and marginalization is an unfortunate hallmark of the Black experience in the United States 4,5 . Black students attend higher education institutions where racist ideologies and anti‐Black stereotypes permeate their learning and social spaces, particularly at historically White colleges and universities 6,7 . Studies have found that Black students receive and endure messages like they do not belong; are lazy, criminals, and less intelligent than their non‐Black peers; and were admitted because of their race 8–10 .…”

The Lion Refugee in Europe: A Critical Race/Anti-Blackness Counterstory

“…Finally, being Black in Europe has its costs in terms of racial macro and microaggressions and racial battle fatigue (Ragland Woods et al, 2021; Smith et al, 2007), to outright open discrimination and prejudice. According to a summary report from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (2019), about one out of every three respondents experienced harassment motivated by racism.…”