black fragility

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English

Etymology

Coined in response to the concept of white fragility.

Noun

black fragility (uncountable)

  1. An alleged tendency on the part of black people to ascribe racism to a wide range of possibly benign acts and words.
    Coordinate term: white fragility
    • 2021, Jimi Calhoun, Funknology: A Synthesis of Art, Science, and Being (page 12)
      Black fragility is the quality of being easily damaged or broken—due to a long history of external social pressures. The type of fragility just mentioned is not referring to any inherent weakness in the make-up of Black people because our history tells a very different story.
    • 2022, Rosalie Pedalino Porter, America Challenged: The New Politics of Race, Education, and Culture (page 72)
      Black Fragility Infantilizes Blacks | There is an assumption of Black fragility in the anti-racism arguments. Blacks are treated as so weak that they cannot be disagreed with, criticized, or asked anything, lest they be irreparably harmed.
    • 2023, Winkfield Twyman, Jr., Jennifer Richmond, Letters in Black and White: A new correspondence on race in America, page 16:
      I have not felt empathy for cosmetic disputes like the use of the word "owner" for NBA owners. [] The term "owner" is a legal term. It is devoid of race unless one is driven to see race in everything in life. [] Many of these micro-calamities are rooted in Black Fragility, an inability to see beyond slaveholding. I see Black Fragility as the greatest threat to a healthy black culture and consciousness.