What is Racial Battle Fatigue?
It is the cumulative result of a natural race-related stress response to extended exposure to distressing mental and emotional conditions.
Post-election, a coalition of Thacher’s anti-racism groups sponsored a virtual event: Dr. William Smith presented on “Understanding and Disrupting Racial Battle Fatigue.” Dr. Smith is a professor and the department chair in the Department of Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Utah. He also holds a joint appointment in the Ethnic Studies Program (African American Studies Division). He shared techniques for avoiding racial battle fatigue, which is the cumulative emotional, psychological, physiological, and behavioral effect that racial micro-aggressions and macro-aggressions have on people of color. He then enumerated techniques that can be used to mitigate racial battle fatigue. Dr. Smith finished the session by taking insightful questions from students.
Back
More About Thacher
Interested in learning more about Thacher? Sign up for a virtual visit here.
A college preparatory boarding school for grades 9-12
Notice of nondiscriminatory policy as to students: The Thacher School admits students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other School-administered programs.