‘Diversity educators’ fear ‘burnout’ from ‘microaggressions’

A recent academic journal article warns that “diversity educators” often suffer from “burnout and compassion fatigue” due to “the emotional weight” of their jobs, particularly at “predominantly white institutions.” The authors suggest that administrators “publicly and symbolically recognize the work of diversity educators,” for instance by raising their pay to a level “commensurate to this position.”

A group of professors recently warned college administrators that “diversity educators” risk “burnout and compassion fatigue” from “the emotional weight” of their jobs.

University of North Carolina at Charlotte professor Ryan Miller and six colleagues from the University of North Texas recently interviewed seven diversity educators from a “predominantly white research institution” for a study published Tuesday in the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, reporting that many of the subjects described suffering from “compassion fatigue,” “burnout,” or “racial battle fatigue” from their microaggression prevention efforts.

This burnout is caused by diversity educators’ “consistent exposure to various microaggressions” from unruly students, Miller explains, noting that microaggressions have been conceptualized by some scholars “as forms of assault and torture.”

According to the article, there is a “gradual wearing down of individuals entrenched in the work of helping others as diversity educators,” especially for microaggression prevention workers.

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