Mental Health in the Black Community

By DeAndrae Washington

Often within the African American community, mental health awareness has either been taken for granted or simply disregarded altogether. The reasons behind such a discrepancy can stem from a lack of access to a lack of knowledge, or complete negligence due to cultural stigmas. Black Americans annually account for 25% in comparison to 40% of White Americans of those that seek mental health treatment.

According to the Center for Disease Control, Black Americans develop mental health conditions at a rate equal to anyone else. However, due to slavery and Black Americans long being considered as property versus human beings, the rights that were commonly afforded to White Americans were not extended to Black Americans thus resulting in social, economic, and emotional trauma that undoubtedly contributed further to mental health deficiencies. These deficiencies have permeated through Black American culture and society for generation after generation with little to no acknowledgement.

Up until 1965, less than 40 years ago, there were U.S. laws that were used to justify the abuse of Black people. That trauma has been passed down through intergenerational transmission which is a process where people whose ancestors experienced trauma may be vulnerable to mental health conditions as well. Black Americans were forced to endure racism that resulted in high poverty rate, increased incarceration, and less access to health care. Along with a lack of access to health care, Black people have leaned on the ideology that a reliance on family, community, and spiritual support were the best ways to endure what they were experiencing without any regards to their mental state. That lack of knowledge has caused a sense of cultural sensitivity where Black people often feel marginalized. In a field where only 2% of therapists are black, many Black people feel like they are not understood and those of other races are incapable of identifying with their cultural struggles.

Due to either a lack of knowledge or a lack access, African American people have suffered severely from mental health issues. Through this suffering, African American people have created cultural stigmas that often result in negligence altogether. Avoidance and disregard have become the cure for mental health issues. Essentially, African Americans have been programmed to cope with each struggle they have faced and continue to face, mental health simply is not identified as a war worth fighting considering the many other battles that oppress the race. Though there has been an increase in the acknowledgement of mental health awareness within the African American community, only time will tell if the culture truly benefits from a system that was originally designed to limit resources and exclude them from their human rights.

-DeAndrae Washington is office manager at Desert Star Addiction Recovery Center