black fragility

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.