This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: As a child, Nefatari excelled at advanced mathematics. But a teacher questioned her academic success in this area because the teacher believed Black girls were not good at math.
Years later, as a research participant, Nefatari said the teacher's influence steered her away from her preferred field. Her narrative illustrates how racialized assumptions can have long-term consequences for Black girls' confidence, opportunity, institutional support and talent development, according to new research led by University of Utah interdisciplinary scholar William A. "It was her teacher who basically discouraged her and said, "You should do something that you can get a career in,'" said Smith, the chief executive administrator at Huntsman Mental Health Institute and an adjunct professor of psychiatry.
She went on to earn a Ph.D. in music. So for most people, it looks like she succeeded. How many Black women have a Ph.D. in music?
Well, she still dreams of what would've happened if she had continued to pursue her dreams and became a mathematician." Identified only by pseudonyms to protect their privacy, Nefatari was one of 25 Black women who participated in Smith's research exploring anti-Black misogyny and its impact on the lived experiences of Black women from childhood through their professional careers. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with participants from across the United States, the study advances scholarship on gendered racism, education, health justice and institutional accountability by showing how early racialized experiences shape later vulnerability to stress injury. It also challenges assumptions that educational attainment or professional success shields Black women from racialized, gender-based harm.
Instead, the findings show that advancement can introduce new forms of scrutiny, emotional regulation and institutional navigation. The findings further expand the concept of "racial battle fatigue," a term Smith coined in 2003 to describe the psychophysiological symptoms—from high blood pressure to anxiety, frustration, shock, anger and depression—racially minoritized people may experience while living in and navigating historically White spaces. "Racial Battle Fatigue is not simply exhaustion.
It is accumulated injury," Smith said. "It is a systemic racism-related repetitive stress injury that develops when people are forced to encounter, anticipate, navigate and recover from racism again and again." Smith holds the Jon M. Huntsman Presidential Chair and is a distinguished professor in the Department of Culture, Education & Society and the Department of Ethnic, Gender & Disability Studies.
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