black fragility
black fragility noun: a supposed tendency on the part of black people to ascribe racism to a wide range of possibly benign words or actions.
Noun
black fragility (uncountable)
- A supposed tendency on the part of black people to ascribe racism to a wide range of possibly benign words or actions.
- 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.2021, Jimi Calhoun, Funknology: A Synthesis of Art, Science, and Being (page 12)
- 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.2022, Rosalie Pedalino Porter, America Challenged: The New Politics of Race, Education, and Culture (page 72)
Origin of black fragility
Coined in response to the concept of white fragility.
Questions about black fragility
- What does black fragility mean?
- Black fragility means a supposed tendency on the part of black people to ascribe racism to a wide range of possibly benign words or actions.
- What part of speech is black fragility?
- Black fragility is a noun.
Words near black fragility in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: black fragility (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “black fragility.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/black_fragility. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.