Racial discourse in America is a lot like two ships passing at night. Despite the proximity of groups, they are not communicating in earnest. There is no call-and-response pattern. Consider, for instance, within the black community, that “woke” refers to “awareness of racial justice.” Yet, outside of it, the term has become a catch-all phrase to bemoan any progressive policy. Some use it as a slur to diminish Black people in particular. Introducing this new, confounding definition muddles the signal. In the social sciences, we call this intentional distortion of meaning hermeneutical injustice, as it creates a collective gap in understanding that unfairly restricts someone’s ability to convey their experience. There is no reason why two ships passing at night can’t communicate. Those onboard could talk via radio if they wanted. Yet, mismatched meanings of terms make constructive discourse a challenge.
Another example would be racists creating a second meaning for “black fatigue.” Years before some white people began to use the term to express their frustration with Black people and their pursuit of racial justice, the phrase had an official meaning. Mary Frances Winters, the author who coined the term, defined it as “repeated variations of stress that result in extreme exhaustion and cause mental, physical, and spiritual maladies passed down from generation to generation.” This phrase encompasses Black people’s collective fatigue. If white people were listening to Black people, what they would hear is an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion produced by the nation’s lack of racial progress. But, sadly, the flippant second meaning elevated by some white people frames “black fatigue” as their exhaustion with Black people. Overlooking its original meaning clouds the waters between the two.
While “black fatigue” is relatively new phrasing, the notion isn’t. Think back to the winter of 1964, when civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer spoke at a New York rally. She said, “For 300 years, we’ve given them time. And I’ve been tired so long, now I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, and we want a change.” Her words encompassed the collective exhaustion of many Black Americans as time in itself did not heal these wounds. Yet, many refused to support efforts to mitigate harm. A few years earlier, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” that “For years now, I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.” He, too, felt fatigued at the expectation that Black people should wait for a more convenient season to demand change.
Throughout the nation’s history, Black people endured racism often without remedy. This is enough to cause fatigue and frustration among any group of people. Rather than seeing this feeling as reasonable, many deny that the group has anything to complain about. However, such an assessment overlooks evidence of the racism Black people face. For instance, studies show exposure to racial discrimination is positively associated with a variety of conditions, such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (Lewis et al., 2015; Williams, 2018). In addition to psychological impact, another consequence of exposure to racism is “premature biological aging,” based on a study conducted by Auburn University researchers (Chae et al., 2020). Authors noted “racial discrimination contributes to accelerated physiologic weathering and health declines among African Americans.” The quality of their lives and their duration (Luo et al., 2021) are impacted by racism. Yet, these problems are swept under the rug when the initial meaning of “black fatigue” is overlooked.
The double meaning of “black fatigue”
The meanings for black fatigue in the black community and the white community are as different as night and day. How did this schism occur? When Shiloh Hendrix, a White woman, reportedly directed a racist slur toward a 5-year-old Black boy, she faced public backlash, as many condemned the racist verbal attack. Yet, some sought to defend her behavior. In one viral post on TikTok, a woman blamed “black fatigue” for their support of racist outbursts. Rather than using the term aligned with its original meaning, to describe the chronic exhaustion Black people shared from being on the receiving end of personal and systemic racism, she used it to suggest many White people are fed up with Black people, that they’re quite literally exhausted.
“Black fatigue is real,” she claimed, adding, “We are so unbelievably fed up with the ghetto ratchet behavior.” Later in the clip, she said, “I’m sick and tired of opening TikTok and seeing brawls on cruises, brawls in the airport. The most ghetto behavior. We’re tired.” Of course, such language attempts to justify racism by endorsing stereotypes. Black people are no more violent than other groups, but racists often make this claim to legitimize their prejudice. The term “ghetto” in American society is frequently used to disparage Black people who live in impoverished communities. Yet, this is ironic when we consider the factors contributing to these circumstances. During Jim Crow, racial redlining policies segregated communities and restricted Black people from living in areas deprived of resources. White-flight produced the ghetto.
Anthony L. Fisher, Senior Editor for MSNBC Daily, noted MAGA centrists have been blaming “woke” for their “black fatigue.” Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this exchange is that White people’s version of the term seeks to normalize racist attitudes toward Black people. Given that these stereotypes misrepresent the true nature of Black people, they serve as nothing more than a thin veil for racial animus. When Black people reference “black fatigue,” as Fannie Lou Hamer did when she said she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired,” the goal was to bring the conversation about the racial injustices to the forefront, to create the tension necessary to foster positive social change. When it comes to the reframing of “black fatigue,” Journalist Stacy Patton suggested, “What we are witnessing is ideological warfare and a sleight of hand where Black folks are being reframed as the source of white suffering.” This rhetoric seeks not only to justify racist attitudes and beliefs but also to promote policies that harm the Black community. White people’s purported “fatigue” exposes their unwillingness to discuss long-standing racial disparities in good faith. That’s why it seems like there’s static on the line.
White people have not, en masse, responded to the definition of “woke,” as in “awareness of racial injustice.” Instead, they’ve shifted its meaning. By moving the goal post, they’ve been able to admonish the term “woke” without actually interacting with its original meaning. The same goes for their new meaning of “black fatigue.” If its original meaning were respected, we’d be discussing “the accumulated pain and trauma from centuries of violence perpetuated against Black people,” which reached “the boiling point.” But, as Frances Winters wrote, “many White people claim to not have much understanding of why Black people are fatigued.” Like two ships passing in the night, racial discourse in America has reached a point of stillness, as if each boat has dropped its anchors. Despite this perpetual proximity, there is a deep-seated refusal to engage in good faith and use the terms coined by the black community with their original meaning in mind. Until this willingness changes, miscommunications will persist.