Exploring the Social Psychological Undercurrents of Workplace Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) for Minority Faculty at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) in the U.S

Darrell Norman Burrell () and Adina Lundy ()
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Darrell Norman Burrell: Marymount University, Arlington, VA, USA
Adina Lundy: University of Rhode Island, USA

RAIS Conference Proceedings 2022-2025 from Research Association for Interdisciplinary Studies

Abstract: African-American faculty at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) continue to face disproportionate exposure to racism-related stressors despite formal legal protections and decades of diversity initiatives. While prior research documents racial discrimination in hiring, promotion, and evaluation, less attention has been given to the cumulative psychological harm produced by daily microaggressions, structural neglect, and the contemporary political climate that increasingly challenges the legitimacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Situated within ongoing cultural and ideological conflicts surrounding DEI, this qualitative study examines how AfricanAmerican faculty experience racial battle fatigue (RBF) amid narratives that cast doubt on their competence, merit, and right to occupy academic spaces. Drawing on in-depth interviews with eleven African-American faculty members employed at PWIs, this study explores the emotional, psychological, and professional consequences of sustained racialized scrutiny, institutional silence, and weakened commitments to equity. Findings reveal that RBF is intensified by anti-DEI rhetoric that reframes structural interventions, such as affirmative action, as unfair advantage, thereby legitimizing heightened surveillance, professional undermining, and racialized classroom challenges. Participants described chronic vigilance, exhaustion, hopelessness, and emotional withdrawal, particularly in contexts where leadership failed to provide affirmation, protection, or material support. The study underscores that racial battle fatigue is not an individual coping deficit but an institutional outcome shaped by structural inequities, ideological resistance to equity, and the erosion of psychological safety. Implications highlight the critical importance of visible representation, images of expertise and competence, and proactive leadership advocacy in disrupting racialized paradigms of merit. By centering the lived psychological experiences of African-American faculty, this research reframes disengagement and attrition as rational responses to cumulative harm and calls for renewed institutional accountability to sustain equity, mental well-being, and the ethical foundations of higher education.

Keywords: Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF); Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs); African-American Faculty; Diversity in Higher Education; Racism; Anti-DEI; Inclusion; Microaggressions; Psychology; Social Psychology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 18 pages
Date: 2025-11
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Published in Proceedings of the 42nd International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities, November 20-21, 2025, pages 306-324

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