The fight against racial hate and the killings of black people has been going on for a multitude of years. With that being said, many of these issues being faced whether it be, police brutality, unequal opportunity, racial hate and unfair justice—these are issues blacks have experienced for more than 50 years and have continued to resonate plaguing the black community with a feeling of being overwhelmed by the amount of issues that seem to be piling on top of another.

Along with this constant struggle to get what we want, blacks also struggle with continuing to stay with the fight. There is a battle of whether the person who reads the teachings of notable black leaders, participates in constant social media debates, and writes thought-provoking pieces is able to stay sane during a time where a hashtag of an murdered African-American is updated almost weekly.

At this point the struggle many blacks are facing is racial fatigue. Battling racial fatigue during the time where the Black Lives Matter movement has been heavily publicized is a double-edged sword.

Race Battle fatigue is a term that was coined by William Smith in the Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity and Society (2008)—attributing that the psychological attrition that People of Color experience from the daily battle of deflecting racialized insults, stereotypes or discrimination. Many of these racially influenced insults end up being combatted by the person they are used against.

Along with experiences of racial hate, feelings have also risen surrounding cases where an individual feels bias in a decision that was made by a judicial system that they feel usually tends to show more benefits to another race. There comes a time where race is the only issue many people are worried about and have gotten so consumed in the issue and bothered by results not occurring the way they want—the individual ends up becoming tired of even talking about social issues.

Questions other people may ask is, “How can you be so worried about these issues all the time?” And some who discuss these issues constantly may even ask themselves that question. The constant struggle with trying to figure out if progress will ever be made leaves people with many blank discussions. It develops a feeling of insanity. Just recently, CNN broadcaster Don Lemon featured a segment on, “The N-word” which has been a debate that has continued to occur for years.

The same discussions are being held, but it seems that no results are rising from these constant debates. It is hard for an individual to deal with so much hate coming at a race at one time. When putting things in perspective, the George Zimmerman trial occurred just two years ago, the next year in 2014—the killing of Mike Brown occurred along with multiple killings of the summer of Oscar Grant and Eric Garner.

Now in 2015, after multiple Black Lives Matter influenced marches have occurred from college campuses to New York City Times Square streets, a recent man by the name of Walter Scott was also killed. And although time has been spent creating posters, participating in Twitter arguments and expressing our views and opinions in multiple ways, we are still discussing the same issues, and it gets tiring.

The issue gets to a point where a person wants to give up and become content with the fact that the change that has been fought for by leaders like Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Angela Davis, Ella Baker and others may just be a figment of imagination. Now, the question is what to do next?

Many blacks at this point, especially with the growing young black activists today are wondering if there is any type of answer to reconcile the constant battle of racism. And this feeling of racial hate does not only just correlate to killings of African-Americans—it is also felt in the consumption of media. Recent movies have been released that focus on the mistreatment of blacks. The Oscar winning film, “12 Years a Slave” received a lot of critical claim because of the feeling and intimacy of the movie.

It put the viewer in the time of slavery and almost made a person hate another race strictly off of what happened in a film for about two hours. But along with these concepts that are put into films to show sides of black culture, African-Americans also have faced issues and disagreements surrounding cultural appropriation.

Discussions have continued to grow of mainstream award shows creating their appeal for people of the white racial background causing African-Americans to lose their attraction from wanting to view the awards show. There is a need for notoriety that blacks feel they have not received from other races since the beginning of time.

And although it has been such a long period of time of racial hate—the fight against racial hate and racial battle fatigue must continue to occur. In my own personal experience, I was mentally exhausted between writing pieces about the cultural appropriation of Iggy Azalea, why Kendrick Lamar should have won a Grammy in 2014, and the racial injustice against Trayvon Martin in 2013—along with events that occurred this summer it gets to a point where you feel there may actually be no answer to the issue.

But, if you step back and find other approaches to stimulate different thoughts the fatigue that is felt will turn into another fire of burning passion for the advancement of African-Americans. In order for us to not only combat racial fatigue, people of the black race should cultivate together instead of creating separations in a time where a tight knit bond is needed most.

[mc4wp_form]

Phillip Jackson

Writing since April 2015 · 1 story contributed