NNPA Columnist Julianne Malveaux
Terrie Williams is a sister who has put her pain on front street with her book Black Pain n It Just Looks Like We Aren’t Hurting and reminded all of us that depression is not a crime, but an illness. Her foundation, the Stay Strong Foundation (www.staystrongfoundation.com) has been committed to teaching us to treat the illness as just that.
This week, while the nation is enraptured in inaugural euphoria, Williams and her organization are a stark reminder that life goes on. Today, on Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday, she is holding an event in New York that will focus on the issue of depression. The Rev. Al Sharpton, Susan Taylor, Ruby Dee, Mo’Nique, Jeff Johnson and Terrie McMillan are among those lifting their voices to encourage black people to explore their pain.
Terrie says that some of our depression is a function of our slave legacy. We had to hold it in n our affection, pain, disappointment n because feeling allowed others to exploit our weakness. We did not show affection, even to our children, for fear that they would be sold away from us.
That holding in has been passed down to the point where some black folks believe you can pray your way out of a clinical condition. To be sure, prayer works, but sometimes prayer works with therapy or medication.
This is a good time to talk about depression and pain, especially as the economy inflicts external pressures on all of our well being. With an unemployment rate recently reported at 7.2 percent, or 11.9 percent for African Americans, we know that the real deal is about 13.5 percent for the overall population (since we don’t count those folk who stopped looking for work, or those who work part-time and really want to work full-time), and about 20 percent (or 1 in 5) for African Americans.
That’s enough to make the strongest person discouraged, especially if she is one of the ones out of work or facing economic challenges. That external trigger may make a person sad, angry, frustrated, even frightened. And then it might also tip someone over the edge to depression.
Williams would suggest looking at both the internals and the externals. How much of your reaction is about you? How much is about external conditions? Can you separate them?
Rich folk are killing themselves because they can’t face the consequences of poor investments. The mythology of African-American resilience suggests that we don’t kill ourselves over money. The mythology is partly right. The suicide rate of African Americans was 5.25 per 100,000 people, compared to 10.75 per 100,000 people for whites. We are half as likely to kill ourselves as white folks are.
Still, we attempt suicide almost as frequently as white people do, with about 4.1 percent of African Americans attempting suicide, compared to 4.6 percent of whites. And while history and stigma may prevent older African Americans from attempting suicide, it was the third-leading cause of death of young African Americans, age 15-24.
Williams has given us permission to explore the sources of our pain. She has forcefully asserted that depression is not a crime, but an illness, nothing to be ashamed of. So if you are hurting, get help.
Julianne Malveaux is president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C. She can be reached at presoffice@benett.edu.