If you are experiencing a mental health medical emergency, call 911
or go immediately to the closest emergency room.
Suicide prevention:
Risk factors, warning signs
to look out for
Call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, free and confidential support.
_______________________________________
Black History Month exists because Black history has often been left out, changed, or ignored in mainstream stories. Celebrating it helps make space for the voices and experiences that haven’t always been heard. It also means looking at the systems that caused that erasure in the first place.
The idea started in 1926, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History created “Negro History Week.” They believed that learning and visibility were key to justice and that knowing the real history could help push back against racism and false beliefs.
Later, Black teachers, students, and community leaders worked to grow that week into a full month. In 1976, during the U.S. bicentennial, it became officially recognized as Black History Month. Since then, it’s been a time to both celebrate and reflect, especially on the parts of history that don’t always make it into school lessons.
At its heart, Black History Month is about connection: learning from those who came before, seeing how their lives still matter today, and thinking about how to carry that history forward with care.
Mental Health Among Black Men: Barriers to Care and 6 Ways to Find Support
How to reflect, set goals, and move forward without pressure, perfection, or comparison
By Zuri White-Gibson
credit: Everyday Health
Despite slightly decreasing overall rates of suicide in the past several years, suicide continues to be a top cause of death for Black men. In fact, suicide rates for young Black men and adolescents have increased and are now the third leading cause of death in this group, according to recent research.[1]
Find Help Now
If you or a loved one is experiencing significant distress and needs immediate support, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7.
For more help and information, see these Mental Health Resources and Helplines.
Black men who grew up with a lack of economic resources or experienced racial discrimination in young adulthood have an especially increased risk of suicidal thoughts, research shows.[2]
There are many complex reasons for these disparities, with racism being just one. Because of this, there are factors unique to Black men that can serve as barriers to receiving mental health care.
Black Men Face Unique Barriers to Seeking and Receiving Mental Health Care
Black men face unique barriers when it comes to seeking and receiving mental health care. Here are some of them.
Cultural Stigma
When it comes to mental health stigma in the Black community, many community members tend to adhere to an unhealthy definition of strength, particularly when it comes to Black men, says Derrick Gordon, PhD, a psychologist and an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
“As folks of color, we're supposed to be able to kind of endure independently. We're supposed to have the capacity to kind of manage this on our own,” Dr. Gordon says.
“Black men are taught inherently to be strong and stoic, and there's this idea of like John Henry–ism – this inherent need, or at least socialization, of Black men, to be strong and to outperform everyone and everything,” says Omotola K. Ajibade, MD, MPH, a psychiatrist and the founder of Ajibade Consulting Group in Atlanta.
“That's really in order to not be perceived as weak,” says Dr. Ajibade. “Black men tried to hide their vulnerabilities, even from those who love them and would want to help nurture and heal some of those vulnerabilities.”
According to research published in the Journal of Black Psychology, certain faith communities, especially the Christian tradition, sometimes exacerbate negative stigma around mental health issues and care within the Black community, encouraging members to “pray about it” rather than also seek professional help.[3]
“One of the biggest barriers that we encounter sometimes has to do with folks’ belief that, ‘if I have these mental health challenges, I don't believe in my faith tradition as strongly as I should.’” Gordon says. He tries to reframe this conversation with clients so they can understand that it’s possible to rely on both psychotherapy and faith. “Those two things are not in opposition to one another,” says Gordon.
Medical Mistrust
Medical mistrust involves fear of harm or exploitation by medical professionals or institutions. This mistrust may stem from previous negative experiences, familial narratives, or systemic inequities such as racial biases and other discriminatory practices.[4]
When discussing medical mistrust, we often point to the Tuskegee Experiments as an example, says Ajibade. The Tuskegee Experiments were held by the United States Public Health Service (PHS), which was the precursor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and involved using Black men without adequate consent to test the effects of untreated syphilis over a 40-year span. But the origins of the Black community’s healthcare hesitation go back much farther.[5]
Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem
by Bell Hooks
From the late feminist icon and New York Times bestselling author of All About Love, an in-depth look at one of the most critical issues facing Black Americans: a collective wounded self-esteem that has prevailed from slavery to the present day, with a new introduction by Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of Thick.
Why do so many Black Americans—whether privileged or poor, urban or suburban, young or old—live in a state of chronic anxiety, fear, and shame? Rock My Soul: Black People and Self-Esteem breaks through collective denial and dares to imagine a more liberatory framework for understanding “self and identity in a world where loss is commonplace.”
With visionary insight, hooks exposes the underlying reality that it has been difficult—if not impossible—for our nation to create a culture that promotes and sustains healthy self-esteem. Without self-esteem people begin to lose their sense of agency. They feel powerless. But it is never too late for any of us to acquire the healthy self-esteem that is needed for a fulfilling life.
While originally written in 2002, hooks’ insights into the heart and soul of the Black American identity crisis continue to ring true. Through history, pop culture criticism, and hard-won wisdom, hooks writes about what it takes to heal the scars of the past, promote and maintain self-esteem, and lay down the roots for a truly grounded sense of community and collectivity.
Moving beyond the ways historical racial justice movements have failed, hooks also identifies diverse psychological barriers and collective traumas keeping us from well-being. In highlighting the roles of desegregation, education, the absence of progressive parenting, spiritual crisis, or fundamental breakdowns in communication between Black women and men, bell hooks identifies mental health as a revolutionary frontier—and provides guidance for healing within the Black community.
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