Racialized Labor, Racial Battle Fatigue, and Cultural Health 

This program will be held virtually because of safety concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program will be recorded and uploaded to MPA's on-demand webinar catalog at a later date. There is no estimated time as to when it will be available for on-demand viewing.

More details with instruction on how to view the webinar have been sent to all registrants. Email [email protected] if you did not receive the webinar link.

Friday, February 5, 2021

Program: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. CT

Friday Forums are cosponsored with the Metropolitan State University Psychology Department.

About the Program

Although little may be new with respect to the lived experience of racialized labor for Black people navigating Whiteness and White spaces, the ability to name this phenomenon is key to understanding and intervention. This session includes a description of the first published study of racialized labor in everyday life, where racialized labor is defined as the ongoing process of navigating hostile environments steeped in a White racial frame. In addition to introducing racialized labor, this presentation will also include a discussion of racial battle fatigue—a likely outcome of all the racialized labor in people’s lives. Naming the unnamed, i.e., racialized labor, provides an important analytical tool for distinguishing the ongoing process of navigating racism from negative consequences such as racial battle fatigue. These concepts also have critical implications for creating spaces that facilitate cultural health, where scholars have criticized the individual psychotherapy framework as one-to-one counseling does not fully consider the person in the context of their environment. In fact, this may be one reason why Black and Latino communities tend to underutilize professional mental health services. Moreover, the interracial context of counseling and therapy represents a microcosm of the larger society. Hence, in this presentation Dr. Grier-Reed will integrate previous research findings to underscore the need for moving toward an orientation based in cultural health rather than simply mental health.

A presentation will follow the event honoring Dr. Beryl Wingate, Psy.D., LP, with the John M. Taborn Award for Outstanding Contributions to Psychology by a Person of African Descent. If you would like to log on for this presentation without attending the CE program, please email Katie at [email protected] by Thursday, February 4 at 9:00 am.

This session is at the intermediate level and is designed for psychologists and other mental health professionals.

This session qualifies for 3.0 continuing education credits. You must attend the full 3-hour program to get continuing education credit for the event.

Participants will be able to:

1. Identify racialized labor in everyday life.
2. Distinguish between the process of navigating racism and possible negative outcomes such as racial battle fatigue.
3. Define cultural health.

About the Presenter:

Tabitha Grier-Reed Ph.D., LP, is a licensed psychologist and professor at the University of Minnesota whose mission includes creating generative, humanizing, and even healing spaces for Black students. Dr. Grier-Reed received a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology (CSPP). In 2005 she co-founded the African American Student Network (aka AFAM)—a safe space for Black students on the University of Minnesota campus, and she continues to publish research on the network which has been connected to positive retention and graduation outcomes, traditional therapeutic factors, and increased social connectedness. Most recently, she has also identified AFAM as a space for “racialized labor”—a term she coined in trying to capture the lived experiences of students.

The Minnesota Psychological Association is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Minnesota Psychological Association maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

ACCESSIBILITY ACCOMMODATIONS:  If you need disability related accommodations to make this event accessible, please contact the Metropolitan State University Center for Accessibility Resources, 651-793-1549, or [email protected]. 

To Register:

Registration is now closed.

Click here to view and download a PDF program flyer and registration form.

Registration Pricing:

Refund/Cancellation Policy: A 100% refund will be made if the event is cancelled. Refunds, less a $5 handling fee, will be given if a written cancellation is received at least two working days before the scheduled program begins. No refund or transfer is given the day of the program.