I am a Black woman, and I am tired of thinking too much: Black women and the inequities of cognitive labor!

According to psychologists, in a 24-hour day, the average person will typically have more than 6,000 thoughts. That’s a lot of thinking. Well, as a Black woman, I know I average three times more thoughts than your typical cisgender, heterosexual, white male, and I am exhausted. Thoroughly. Welcome to my life, where I go from innocuous decisions like what color should my dog’s bandanna be to virtually life or death decisions, if I venture into a new neighborhood for my daily walk, could I be shot and killed?

Cognitive function refers to a person’s mental capacity for acquiring new information, thinking, reasoning, problem solving, remembering and decision making, and we utilize our cognitive capabilities frequently, from making a cup of coffee, digesting social media content, making decisions at work, and even deciding what to make for dinner.

It was until the Black Lives Matter reached its peak visibility in 2020 due to the publicized murder of George Floyd, where psychologists started to articulate the impact of system racism on cognitive health. Black women who frequently experienced daily racism — including racial slurs, or stereotyping — had 2.75 times the risk of poor subjective cognitive functioning than women who experienced lower…