“I Stopped Sleeping”: Teachers of Color and the Impact of Racial Battle Fatigue

Publication Date

9-1-2020

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Urban Education

Volume

55

Issue

7

DOI

10.1177/0042085918805788

First Page

967

Last Page

991

Abstract

Racial battle fatigue (RBF) has been operationalized as the psychological, emotional, and physiological toll of confronting racism. In this article, RBF is used to analyze the toll of racism on teachers of Color who work within a predominantly White profession. We present counterstories of justice-oriented, urban, teachers of Color who demonstrate racism in their professional contexts as a cumulative and ongoing experience that has a detrimental impact on their well-being and retention in the field. We also share their strategies of resilience and resistance, as they rely on a critical community to persist and transform their schools.

Keywords

racial battle fatigue, racial climate, racism, teacher retention, teachers of Color, urban education

Department

Chicana and Chicano Studies

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