Why Are More Black Kids Suicidal? A Search for Answers.

“But the part of me that had depression and shame and sadness everyday — I wanted that pain to die. I wanted that part to go away.”

Mental health is an issue that I have tried bringing to light as often as possible in every aspect of my life, my social media efforts and within the spheres of influence that I touch every single day. We often focus so much on the physical health, and as a personal trainer, nutrition coach and future physician I understand the importance of the physical, but just as important as the physical and integrally connected with the physical nature of our bodies is our mental and emotional health. In this article the New York Times investigates how recent trends since the early 2000's have shown that although suicide rates in white populations, who have traditionally been the highest percentage of youth and teen aged suicides, have gone down, the percentage of youth aged and teen aged suicides have been steadily and dramatically rising among the black population. The biggest links have been to mental and emotional trauma, stress and lack of proper care with regards to both. In the "inclusive histories matter" seminar that I attended the idea of "racial battle fatigue" sticks out in my mind as I read this article. There are so many issues when it comes to our young people and their ability to find comfort in a system that is designed against them if they are of a minority group or how entitled they become in a system that tells them they are better for being white or having money. In Caste by Isabelle Wilkerson, we read of the systemic racism that plagues our nation and I have no doubt that this is a direct downstream influence of the systemic issues we face.

Young people are dying, young minority and intersectional minority people are killing themselves. Why? What can we do to stop this? How can we make "that part go away?" This is not right. The article also briefly discussed how those who are black and identify as LGBTQ+ are at an even greater risk. We read about LGBTQ+ issues in a few articles in class one "Understanding the Well-Being of LGBTQI+ Populations." (PDF at Bottom). I can't help but think that there are so many structural and social discrepancies with regards to how our young people see themselves. Volunteering at Encircle I see it weekly how young adults and youth feel like they are worth less than their heterosexual peers or that their skin color determines their worth or happiness. Access to more therapy and open communication about mental health is something I know will make an impact on our young people and I think it will be up to us and honestly the social media influencers that our young people are following on a daily basis. I am doing what I can to inform everyone who follows me the importance of mental health and that it is okay to have feelings and emotions. I hope that I am making an impact.