As someone who has fallen victim to doomscrolling, I have never been more tired of my FYP than when I noticed a watered-down version of “Black Fatigue” trending on TikTok. When discussing Black experiences, somehow, terms that are created for us and by us are stripped of their meaning and turned into viral memes.
This disregard for the seriousness of Black people and how they choose to express their lived experiences undermines the power of language and centuries of deep-rooted racism. So TikTok, you’re using Black Fatigue wrong. It isn’t a trend, it’s a reality.
What is Black Fatigue?
Black Fatigue is a term coined by author Mary-Frances Winters in her book, Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit. It is used to describe the multifaceted exhaustion and toll that Black people experience because of systemic racism. It isn’t the diluted, surface-layer burnout that the media is making it out to be. It is the result of the constant racial stereotypes, microaggressions, oppression, and trauma suffered by Black people.
Winters uses her book and voice to address the weariness associated with injustice. In a 2021 interview with CNN, she points to specific areas where Black Americans may still be experiencing the exhaustion of injustice despite the progress made. Here she states, “Hypocrisy creates fatigue because of all the pushback. We’re so steeped in American exceptionalism and the myth that our democracy is working. If you speak out against it, you are thought of as a heretic.”
The misuse of black fatigue on TikTok
Despite the original intended purpose of the term, its usage has been deposed and replaced to now describe the exhaustion felt by nonblack people in relation to Black issues. Various TikTok users have posted their own interpretations of Black fatigue, as if the group of people who actually live it hadn’t already defined it.
Although there are people on TikTok speaking out against this issue, the misuse of the term is growing in numbers and spreading across platforms. The term’s original meaning has been lost in translation, and while scrolling.
Black fatigue wasn’t created as a tool to push racist ideology, but as a way to acknowledge, advocate, and act against the exhaustion that Black people endure daily. It is our way of recognizing the power in language and using it as an act of resistance. When something like this gets contextually, historically, and socially reduced, it perpetuates the ideas and systems it was designed to dismantle.
Recentering the meaning of black fatigue
In times like these, when concepts and language are easily minimized through TikTok culture, it’s important to reclaim the true meaning of words. We must be intentional and respectful in our language, preserving the definitions of terms that stem from struggle.
Black Fatigue isn’t TikTok slang, and it isn’t just another trend to hop on. Black fatigue is real-life exhaustion, which wasn’t meant to go viral. When we develop words to depict our experiences, they deserve thoughtfulness and care, just like any other language that inspires understanding.