Black Mental Health Matters — Understanding Black Men and Mental Illness — The Shackles Lost project by the host of Black Fathers Matter
The following commentary from Ralph Bryant is available as a royalty free article. Ralph is also available for media interviews and makes for a compelling segment.
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FROM RALPH :
We are living in extraordinary times, where the simple act of going outside to feel the sunshine on your face, to go on a walk with your families or your pet, requires an incredible act of courage and commitment. Now imagine that you are a black person, where you are three times more likely to contract the virus and die from it.
As if the fears of Covid-19 are not enough (and it is plenty), black people also have to suffer through a different type of sinister virus: the incredible rate that black people continue to die at the hands of police. According to tracking of police shooting by the Washington Post, despite accounting for only 13% of the population, Black Americans account for 32% of all police fatalities. Those deaths disproportionally fall on young black men, aged 20–40. These mens are fathers and sons and, most importantly, human beings killed in front of their own communities.
Those two crises alone would be enough to create mental health challenges in the black community, but then you layer on over-incarceration, under-employment and education, inherited health crises (e.g., diabetes, high blood pressure, etc) and is it any wonder why, according to conservative estimates, that black people are 20 percent more likely to suffer through a serious mental illness in their lifetimes. Black folks are also much more likely to seek out mental health resources.
I am one of those black men. I am writer, content creator, the co-host of Black Fathers Matter podcast, and a third generation sufferer of mental illness My family has struggled with mental illness, from my maternal grandmother, to my mother, who was initially hospitalized at 15 years old. My brothers and I were told that we were also likely to suffer from mental illness as well — so I lived with a proverbial “black” cloud for my entire adult life, made worse by a mother, who was teenager when she became a mother, an absentee father, who I only saw a handful of times, and devastating childhood trauma that has haunted me every single day.
Despite all these obstacles, I was one of the lucky ones, I survived living on the streets to graduate high school, continue onto university, and have had a pretty successful career. Even today — on the surface. Quietly, and unbeknownst to me, the cancer of mental illness was metastasizing inside of my mind, negatively impacting every single part of my life. It was a sinister mistress, whispering in my ear, making me do things that I would have never done if I was of a sane mind. Every intimate partnership, every job opportunity, and every familial relationship was devastated by my struggles. Therapy and pharmaceuticals did not help me, because I wasn’t truly ready to be ready. By the time I was truly ready to seek help, it was too late and I found myself inside a mental institution.
For the first time in my life, I finally feel strong enough to acknowledge that I am a third-generation sufferer of mental illness, and feel prepared and confident to do the work required to get healthy. To begin to thoroughly examine the impact of mental illness on myself and my family, I have recently launched “Shackles Lost,” a multimedia documentary project designed to explore and understand the depths of my mental illness. I have been quietly working on this for the past few years and it feels like my life’s mission.
Shackles Lost is an inside look at one black man’s struggle with mental illness. Using photos, videos, and archived footage, along with an unflinching honesty and narrative style, people will be treated to peeling back the onion that has led to my mental illness, but more importantly, my desperate plea and yearning for mental freedom.
As much as the the purpose of the “Shackles Lost” project is change the definition of what it means to be a black man with mental illness, it is also an attempt to redefine what means to be a black father. I have two young boys, and I am trying to break the “shackles” of the archetype of black fatherhood in our culture, embodied by tales of absenteeism, hyper sexualization, the prison system, drug abuse and trafficking, and violence — both in the streets and domestically. This stereotype exists even in content that black folks ourselves create — watch any Tyler Perry movie to confirm this. So is it any wonder that black men are perceived as the same 3/5ths of a person as memorialized in the United States Constitution. This history of devaluing of our bodies is part of the reason why we are dehumanized by police and society every single day, leading to worse mental health outcomes.
“Shackles Lost” is equal parts a mental health journey and a celebration of black fatherhood. It is an opportunity to learn, and grow and heal. And for the first time in my life, despite everything happening in the word, most importantly, I believe I am ready to finally let go my past and learn to love myself.
MEDIA CONTACT :
Tracy Lamourie, Lamourie MEDIA, lamouriePR@gmail.com
