Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Between Hope And Racial Battle Fatigue: African American Men And Race-Related Stress, William A. Smith, Man Hung, Jeremy D. Franklin

Jeremy D. Franklin

Decades of empirical research has provided valuable evidence that racism is experienced as a stressor which can have a negative influence on the mental, emotional, and physical health of People of Color. The purpose of this study is to assess how hope, as a form of coping, mitigates the weight of racial microaggressions, societal problems, and mundane extreme environmental stress among 670 African American men. Using structural equation modeling, we find that for African American men, hope is like a pendulum that can intensify their racial battle fatigue or lessen it if it is not managed effectively. African American men …