Columnists
After the news reports of the heinous crimes in East St .Louis, I couldn’t help but go straight to the issue of mental illness. Tiffany Hall is a barometer for our community’s mental health.
Tiffany Hall killed her life-long friend Jimella Tunstall and ripped her unborn baby from her stomach to claim it as her own. For reasons still unknown, a few days later she decided to kill Tunstall’s other three children, ages 1, 2, and 7 years old. The little ones were stuffed in the home’s washer while the older child was crammed in the dryer.
The two separate but related crimes shook the emotions of the St. Louis area as they made national news headlines.
What drove Hall to commit such a brutal act? What signs of distress were prevalent that those around her didn’t pick up or chose to ignore?
A report on mental illness by the U.S. Surgeon General cites that African Americans are over represented in populations that are at risk for mental illness. That means we may not ever be far from “the edge.”
These populations include the homeless, the incarcerated, those in the child welfare system and those exposed to violence. The report also cited that protracted exposure to poverty doesn’t help the situation either.
Blacks are only 12 percent of the US population yet are 40 percent of the homeless. We easily represent 50-60 percent of America’s prison population. Our children comprise almost 50 percent of the foster care system and over half the waiting list for adoption. Blacks, especially young men, who are exposed to violence, often meet the same criteria for post traumatic stress syndrome similar to war zone situations. The suicide rate of young, black men is twice as high as their white counterparts.
We should expect the stress level for us to become greater. The last-hired, first-fired scenario is amplified in an economy that is moving from public sector jobs to tech jobs – many of those overseas. The high costs of higher education keeps us searching for low-wage jobs while the cost of living continually goes up. Affordable housing is at a premium and social services are almost minimal. Billions of dollars are directed to fight terrorism (both real and fabricated), while peaceful citizens at home are deprived of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Since the prognosis of our black lives doesn’t seem to be getting better, our mental and physical health becomes more important. Without them, we cannot fully participate in our roles as family members, workers, students, citizens. Without them, we cannot work together effectively to address the issues that affect us.
One interesting but not surprising highlight of the surgeon general’s report is that African Americans don’t receive the treatment they need for mental and emotional problems. Some of the reasons are clearly lack of access. Here in St. Louis, Malcolm Bliss Mental Hospital was closed down, and changes were made as to how long you could stay in any facility before your benefits ran out.
Blacks are also mistrustful of the medical-industrial complex and for good reasons. Our minds and bodies have long been testing grounds for experimentation. The Tuskegee experiment where black men were injected with syphilis is only one of the more notorious examples.
In a society where racism brings about its own particular stress factors, African Americans need to look more closely at those contributors they have some control over. Our lifestyles could use some changes, such as diet and exercise. Just as important, we have to change the environments we live in and that’s both in our homes and our communities. They must be strong enough to insulate us from external forces that show up later in the Tiffany Halls.
(Help is desperately needed for funeral arrangements for the Tunstall family. Donations can be sent to Tunstall Children Burial Fund, Regions Bank, 4800 W. Main Street, Belleville, IL 62226.)