Tag Archives: Violence

Black mind health matters

Secrets & plain English answers to Black mental health concerns

Book cover People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil (Simon & Schuster, 1983) ISBN 978-0-684-84859-4

People of the Lie – A book whose time has come

In a time like this, one thinks about the books, written long ago, that seemto have foretold this moment M ...

Finding your voice in the Age of the Big Lie

At the root of almost all conflict - whether between internationalgovernments or between intimate partners - is a LieSaid by ...

What determines sanity

At the core of anyone's sanity is the issue of knowing and recognizing the truth. Our recent political "situation" afforded ...

Taking psychiatric meds? How to protect yourself from side effects.

Along with frequently described mood  or antidepressant medications, what else can a person do to protect themselves from accumulating brain ...
Nutrition author Tracye McQuirter

How to feed your brain to make it last

Let's face it.....every time you feed your body, you feed your brain. A well-fed brain can think clearly, make great ...

Coconut oil for alcoholism

A former alcoholic who researched a solution to the unbearable cravings for alcohol that ruined his personal life, Dr. Robert ...

Psychosis – Is Early Childhood Bullying a Cause?

Children who are bullied or who are bullies themselves may be at greater risk of becoming psychotic as adults. Psychosis ...

Kids Are Being Prescribed Antidepressants and ADHD Meds at Increasingly High Rates

In the report, Children's Health Spending: 2009 - 2012, issued by the Health Care Cost Institute, an increase in prescription ...

Fight dementia & Alzheimer’s: Dump the bread

Renowned neurologist, David Perlmutter, says that it's neither consistent with reality nor current science to deny the negative effects of ...

No Amount of Alcohol is Safe

The 2014 World Cancer Report from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) concludes that no ...

Just Get Over It! And Other Insensitive Things That People Say……..

How many times have you heard someone shriek, mutter, moan, yell, spit, murmur or plead, "Just get over it!", usually ...

Crucial Factors in Mother Driving her Children into the Ocean

What would make a young mother want to kill her children? That was the big question when this near tragic ...

How police killings of unarmed blacks affect us

They directly impact both our mental health
as well as our physical health

Have you, like so many black parents and
helping professionals, been wondering what impact
these killings of our brothers and sisters are having
on us and our children?

It affects their health, both
emotional and physical. It’s no coincidence that our
communities have disproportionate levels of heart
disease, hypertension, diabetes and addictions. But
when you see the statistics, it is startling.

A report published in the British medical journal,
The Lancet, validates the negative impact of police
killings of unarmed blacks on black people in the
states in which they happened. The inter-
national response to George Floyd’s death shows
that there has been a measurable impact around
the world. It is validating to realize that people
all over the world have been touched by what
has been going on here in the States.

The mental health of white Americans was not
similarly affected by killings of unarmed blacks,
the researchers found. Nor were negative health
effects associated with police killings of unarmed
white Americans or armed black Americans.

The study, which looked at survey data and
examined a database of police killings, noted that
white Americans were not affected similarly.
They also found that killings of armed black
Americans or unarmed white people did not
seem to generate negative health effects.

While we are seeing the increase in violent crime
with the emergence of the pandemic, data tracking
of police killings of blacks found no correlation with
local crime rates. It is more likely that a firearm
and implicit bias don’t belong together but anti-
racism training and more progressive policing
methods do.

Protecting the Black Body through voting

The world has been given a closeup view of how the black body (this time in the forms of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor) continues to be disrespected and often extinguished by those who are supposed to be our protectors. This is what can clearly be seen in the videos of Mr. Floyd’s murder. This is what is obvious in examining the details of the murder of a sleeping Breonna Taylor. But this is also what every black person knows to be true. We are watched, hunted and blocked in every environment, be that along lonely rural roads or in a luxury retailer’s men’s department in New York City. How this affects the black mind is of utmost enduring importance.

How has this assault on the black body been addressed by the government which we form through our votes, the businesses that we allow to exist through our dollars and the service organizations for which we provide the labor? Our former president had suggested that we be met with dogs and weapons, not unlike Bull Connors, an ignorant, racist icon of 50 years ago. Our local police departments are saying “Well, it shouldn’t have happened but we’re continuing to work on a more” enlightened” force. People of color and those of open mind and heart know what they are seeing: the result of centuries of ignorant domination of the kind-hearted, the meek, the suppressed and the hopeful. These problems exist for all blacks, regardless of location, occupation, education, religion or income. That means that racism is alive and well everywhere. So we have to be observant, aware, prepared. We have to determine effective ways to deliver our messages to our representatives. Our power is in our voices and our numbers. Ally your voice with those who share your goals. Support those organizations and programs that will step out in front and speak up to elected officials. Expect your church to speak up. Serve God through insisting on your government and institutions treating you fairly. Vote! Vote! Vote!

We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang

 

Picador
Picador

“Race makes itself known in crisis, in the singular event that captures a larger pattern of abuse and pain,” writes author Jeff Chang (Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, Who We Be)  in the introduction to a series of essays on the significance of ongoing police shootings, social inequities, housing discrimination and campus diversity.

As an historian, Chang helps us focus on the broader picture (and effects) of the long-term system of racism and how it has played out and continues to develop in our country.  Chang touches on Trump’s speech in Mesa, Arizona (December, 2015),  demonstrations in Ferguson, MO (where he was arrested for participating) on the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death,  and the effects of gentrification to produce a powerful punch through the veil of denial that shrouds and nurtures systemic racism.