Dr. Smith’s research centers on Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF), a pioneering framework he introduced to capture the cumulative emotional, psychological, physiological, and behavioral toll of enduring racial aggressions. These aggressions, spanning micro-level (microaggressions) and macro-level (macroaggressions) forms, exert a pervasive and chronic impact on racially minoritized individuals whom Dr. Smith identifies as racialized Targets. He characterizes RBF as a systemic racism-related repetitive stress injury, highlighting the profound and enduring effects of racial hostility in various social contexts.

Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach that draws from education, sociology, psychology, psychiatry, and ethnic studies, Dr. Smith’s research illuminates the mechanisms through which racial stressors harm individual and collective well-being and informs interventions to mitigate these effects. His work provides a critical lens for understanding how systemic racism operates at both interpersonal and institutional levels, emphasizing the importance of addressing racial stress in promoting mental health and social equity.

Through the RBF framework, Dr. Smith’s scholarship advances the discourse on racial justice, offering actionable insights for transforming policies and practices in education, healthcare, and beyond.