The mental health of Black Americans, especially Black women, doesn’t get the attention it deserves [column] | Local Voices

Trauma. A deeply distressing or disturbing experience. From the ancient Greek word for “wound,” which in present time refers to emotional wounds.

Slave. A person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.

Oppression. A prolonged cruel and unjust treatment or control.

Neglect. Failure to care for a being or thing properly; to be uncared for.

Segregation. The action or state of setting someone apart from other people or things; to be set apart.

PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder involves a person who has difficulty recovering after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event.

The built-up historic oppression, violence, enslavement and animalistic dehumanization of Black people has continued into the present day, and it has had a devastating impact on their mental health.

Slavery, segregation and oppression haven’t been abolished; they have just been rewritten and reworked into what is suitable for America’s current morals.

Black people commonly depend on their faith to maintain hope in seeing change — substantially because their daily experiences are often blemished by distrust of medical and legal systems in our country.

African Americans’ mental health issues are not reported as often as those of  white Americans, partly because 63% of Black people believe that admitting mental health challenges is a sign of weakness, according to a study highlighted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

This results from the trauma of Black lives taken at the hands of law enforcement and the history behind white supremacy as a whole. We Black Americans feel as though our ancestors survived and overcame so many traumatic events that we can overcome anything.

One example of a traumatic incident in the United States that haunts Black Americans to this day is the Red Summer in 1919, when Black veterans of World War I were forced to protect themselves and their communities against mobs of white people. More than 250 African Americans were lynched during terrorism and riots.

We tend to put our own mental health last because we are not the group of people who have the luxury of asking for help.

Among the U.S. population, about 43% of people who receive government assistance are white, while 13 million people who still live in poverty are disconnected from government assistance or any welfare programs, according to the Urban Institute. This tells you that Black Americans are in distress, overwhelmed with the ongoing burdens we carry. We are the last to receive help or to be cared for. This is why the suicide numbers in Black communities are rising at an alarming rate.

Black women are among the most educated women in America. Yet the most disrespected and neglected women in America are Black women.

In the United States, Black women face discrimination in the education system, the media and the health care system. Black women look for Black doctors because they feel unsafe when it comes to their health. The maternal death rate for Black women is more than three times higher than a white woman, which means white women are treated with more respect and care during their pregnancy.

About 60% of Black women in America are listed as head of their household, which means they are the main source of income. Some people mistakenly believe that Black women are “strong enough” to handle their labor without any pain medication, though it’s not that Black women are strong or not strong enough — it’s the simple fact that we are labeled as women who can handle it all.

In reality, we need support, too, because there’s so much weighing on us — the dependency of children looking for love in their mother, the responsibility to pay all the bills and attend to their children’s schooling and facing racial discrimination in the workplace.

Typically, the stress of giving birth is built up from the months of carrying a baby. Some Black women don’t have the support from a paternal figure. Plus, research shows that Black women are the least likely to get married due to colorism (prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone) and society’s standards of the “ideal woman.” That all forces some to be completely independent during and after their pregnancies.

When a Black woman dies during or after being forced to give birth without proper medical care from her doctors, I believe it should be considered manslaughter.

We have open wounds

Slavery happened yesterday.

Jim Crow laws happened yesterday.

The Red Summer happened yesterday.

The civil rights movement happened yesterday.

“I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” happened yesterday.

Black Lives Matter protests happened two hours ago.

America seemingly wants African Americans to move on and forget about what happened — our history, our ancestors, our native tongue, our tribes. It wants us to forget who we are.

As we endure ongoing trauma, we still have to deal with new traumas. Black mental health issues have gone unnoticed and, irrefutably, haven’t been taken seriously enough.

Nationally, the suicide rate among Black children under 18 has gone up 71% over the past decade, according a study published last year by the Journal of the American Medical Association. That is due to stress, the pressure of being their family’s breadwinner, and persistently wearing a target on their back — at the mall, playground, school, work and even on our own porches.

We have open wounds.

Stop giving us a Band-Aid.

Essence Winters is in the 12th grade at J.P. McCaskey High School.