Every time I see the phrase “Black fatigue” online, I already know what kind of conversation it is going to be.

It is almost never Black people saying they are tired of racism. It is usually people outside of the experience saying they are tired of hearing about it. Tired of the conversations, the posts, the reminders, the constant presence of it in their space.

And that says more than people think it does.

Because what does that really mean? That the topic has become inconvenient? That it disrupts comfort? That it forces you to sit with something you would rather not think about?

If you are tired of hearing about racism, how do you think it feels to live inside of it?

There is a difference between being uncomfortable and being impacted and people blur that line constantly. Watching something from the outside and living it are not the same thing and they will never carry the same weight. Calling it fatigue makes it sound shared when it is not shared equally at all.

What people are really calling “Black fatigue” is not fatigue. It is discomfort with accountability.

It shows up when conversations do not disappear as quickly as people want them to. It shows up when issues are not wrapped up neatly so everyone can move on. It shows up when people realize these things are not seasonal and not tied to moments of attention but ongoing whether it is discussed or not.

There is also a pattern in how these conversations are handled. When something happens there is attention. There are posts, statements, awareness, support. People say the right things for a while. Then the moment passes and so does the urgency. The issue is still there but the response is not.

So when it comes up again, it gets treated like repetition instead of reality. Like it is being brought back up for no reason when in truth it was never actually resolved.

There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from having to explain your reality over and over again. Especially when it feels like people are only halfway listening. It is not just the topic itself. It is the constant need to justify why it should matter at all.

That is where the actual fatigue lives.

It is in repetition. It is in dismissal. It is in the feeling that people would rather the conversation disappear than actually engage with it.

Silence has always been more comfortable for people who are not directly affected. When nothing is being said there is no pressure to respond, no need to think deeper, no responsibility to reflect on where you stand in it.

But comfort has never been the point of these conversations.

Awareness is.

Change is.

And neither of those things comes without discomfort.

So when people say they are tired of hearing about Black issues, what they are really saying is they want distance. Distance from the reality, distance from responsibility, distance from anything that asks them to do more than acknowledge and move on.

The conversation is not the problem.

The fact that it still has to exist is.