Black Mental Health Matters | Phillip J. Roundtree | TedxWilmington 2018

Dr. Phillip J. Roundtree

6 May 202013:14

Summary

TLDRIn this powerful speech, the speaker highlights the intersection of Black identity and mental health, discussing personal experiences with depression, anxiety, and trauma. He reflects on societal expectations, the pressure to suppress emotions, and how mental health issues manifest differently in Black men. Sharing stories of family loss, institutional racism, and the journey toward healing, the speaker emphasizes the importance of addressing mental health within the Black community. He advocates for shifting from survival to thriving and calls for greater understanding and support for Black mental health issues.

Takeaways

😀 The speaker is often perceived based on physical traits like being black, bearded, and strong, resembling famous figures like James Harden or 50 Cent.
😔 Despite outward appearances, the speaker battles with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts, which are not often recognized or acknowledged.
💡 Black mental health is often overlooked in the larger conversation about mental health, where stereotypes about race and mental illness persist.
🧠 Trauma plays a significant role in black mental health, including historical trauma (slavery, Jim Crow) and modern-day events (police brutality, violence).
😢 The speaker shares personal stories of trauma, including witnessing his mother's nervous breakdown and the death of his brother from drug use.
💥 The speaker highlights how black men’s mental health often manifests in anger and rage rather than traditional symptoms like prolonged sadness.
👮‍♂️ A minor incident with a cup of juice led to the speaker being arrested, charged, and jailed, demonstrating how unresolved trauma and anger can escalate situations.
📚 Therapy and medication have been crucial in the speaker’s journey to mental wellness, helping him move from survival to thriving.
✊ The speaker urges the black community to seek help, reject the stigma around mental health, and embrace wellness and healing.
💭 The speech is a call to broaden the understanding of mental health beyond the stereotypical images, including people of color who are often excluded from the narrative.

Q & A

What common perceptions does the speaker mention people have about him?
-The speaker mentions that people commonly perceive him as black, bearded, strong, and resembling NBA player James Harden, hip-hop star Donald Glover (Childish Gambino), and Curtis Jackson (50 Cent).
What does the speaker emphasize people don't recognize about him?
-The speaker emphasizes that people don't recognize his struggles with depression, anxiety, and being suicidal for 15 years, despite his external appearance.
How does the speaker describe the typical American view of mental health?
-The speaker describes the typical American view of mental health as focusing on homeless individuals, white celebrities who die by suicide, and white mass murderers, rather than acknowledging people like him, a Black man with a family and education.
What does the speaker mean by 'Black mental health'?
-The speaker defines 'Black mental health' as the individual and collective experiences shaped by trauma that affect the wellness of the Black community, including historical trauma like slavery, Jim Crow laws, and present-day violence.
What are the three personal traumatic experiences the speaker shares?
-The speaker shares three personal traumatic experiences: his mother's nervous breakdown when he was in eighth grade, the death of his brother when he was 17, and an incident in college where he was arrested and jailed after being accused of stealing juice.
How did the speaker cope with the loss of his brother?
-The speaker coped by crying and following cultural practices from hip-hop, such as getting a 'rest in peace' tattoo, though he later realized that these actions did not alleviate the pain of losing his brother.
How does the speaker describe the manifestation of depression and anxiety in Black men?
-The speaker explains that depression and anxiety in Black men often manifest as anger and rage rather than the stereotypical image of someone lying in bed for days.
What lesson did the speaker learn from his psychology professor, Dr. Campbell?
-Dr. Campbell taught the speaker that in life, you either change to get something or to keep something, a lesson that became the speaker's mantra in his journey toward mental wellness.
What has helped the speaker in his journey toward wellness?
-The speaker has found wellness through a combination of medication that helped eliminate his suicidal thoughts and regular therapy sessions, which he attends weekly.
What message does the speaker give to Black and non-Black audiences regarding mental health?
-To Black audiences, the speaker encourages them to seek help, thrive, and not just survive. To non-Black audiences, he asks them to reconsider their perceptions of Black individuals, recognizing their potential mental health struggles and the resilience required to succeed.

Outlines

00:00

💪 Overcoming Stereotypes and Confronting Mental Health

The speaker introduces how people often misinterpret his appearance, labeling him based on his race, beard, and strength, while comparing him to celebrities like James Harden and 50 Cent. However, he highlights that no one perceives him as someone battling depression and anxiety or who has been suicidal for 15 years. He discusses how black mental health is often ignored or misunderstood in society, contrasting it with stereotypical representations of mental health in America. He stresses that black mental health matters, especially in the face of historical and present-day trauma.

05:01

😔 The Impact of Trauma in Black Communities

The speaker explains how trauma, including historical events like slavery and the civil rights movement, impacts black mental health. He shares personal stories, such as witnessing his mother's nervous breakdown at a young age, and how he had to suppress his emotions to continue with life as expected. He reflects on how black people are conditioned to endure trauma and move forward without addressing their emotional pain, which can lead to deeper mental health issues.

10:02

💔 Coping with Loss and Cultural Responses

In high school, the speaker lost his brother to drug abuse, which he connects to the opioid epidemic prevalent in the black and hip-hop communities. Without proper support, he followed cultural norms, like getting a tattoo to commemorate his brother, but this did not alleviate his pain. His grief manifested as anger, leading to an outburst in class and subsequent suspension. This experience reflects how depression in black men often appears as rage rather than sadness, a critical point in understanding black mental health.

🚨 A Life-Changing Incident and Self-Reflection

The speaker recounts a pivotal moment during college when a misunderstanding over a cup of juice escalated into a serious confrontation with law enforcement, resulting in numerous charges and temporary expulsion from school. This incident led him to reflect on his unresolved anger and trauma. However, with the support of his professor, he began to seek help and focus on improving his mental wellness, realizing the importance of change for personal growth.

🌱 The Journey from Survival to Thriving

The speaker shares how therapy and medication helped him address his suicidal thoughts and improve his mental health. He emphasizes the long process of healing, particularly for black people, who often take longer to seek treatment due to cultural stigmas. His message is one of hope, urging others, especially black men, to seek help and go from merely surviving to thriving. He also calls on non-black people to recognize the struggles that black individuals face with mental health, encouraging empathy and understanding.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Black mental health

Black mental health refers to the individual and collective experiences of the Black community that influence their psychological well-being. In the video, the speaker highlights the importance of differentiating Black mental health due to the unique historical and contemporary traumas that the Black community faces, such as slavery, Jim Crow, and modern-day police brutality. The speaker emphasizes that Black mental health issues are often overlooked or misunderstood in mainstream conversations about mental health.

💡Trauma

Trauma is defined as deeply distressing or disturbing experiences that can have lasting effects on an individual’s mental health. In the video, the speaker links trauma to historical events such as slavery, the Tuskegee Experiment, and the personal experiences of witnessing police brutality against Black people. This trauma deeply influences the mental wellness of Black individuals, and the speaker shares his own traumatic experiences, including his mother's nervous breakdown and his brother's death.

💡Suppression of emotions

The suppression of emotions refers to the act of holding back or ignoring one’s feelings instead of expressing them. The speaker talks about how, as a Black man, he was expected to suppress his emotions and continue with life after traumatic experiences, such as his mother’s breakdown and his brother's death. This is a coping mechanism that many Black people adopt, but the speaker argues that it only worsens mental health struggles, leading to anger and rage.

💡Cultural expectations

Cultural expectations refer to the norms and behaviors that are expected of individuals within a particular community. In the context of Black men, the speaker explains that society often expects them to be resilient and suppress emotions. These expectations can prevent Black men from seeking mental health help, as they are expected to be 'strong' and unaffected by emotional distress, leading to deeper psychological struggles.

💡Resilience

Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from difficulties and continue moving forward. The speaker mentions that Black people are often seen as resilient, capable of surviving traumatic situations and systemic oppression. However, this resilience sometimes leads to the harmful assumption that Black individuals do not need mental health support, masking the emotional struggles they face beneath the surface.

💡Historical trauma

Historical trauma refers to the collective emotional and psychological injury experienced by a group of people over generations as a result of significant historical events like slavery and segregation. In the video, the speaker discusses how the Black community continues to face the impacts of historical trauma, which shapes their mental health challenges today. This kind of trauma is passed down through generations, influencing the way Black people experience and cope with mental health issues.

💡Mental health stigma

Mental health stigma is the negative perception and discrimination faced by individuals dealing with mental health issues. The speaker highlights that mental health stigma in the Black community is heightened due to cultural expectations and the lack of open discussions about mental health. He explains that Black men, in particular, are often not seen as individuals who could struggle with depression or anxiety, which exacerbates the problem.

💡Suicide

Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death. The speaker bravely shares his personal experience of being suicidal for 15 years, having suicidal thoughts multiple times a day. He discusses how these thoughts were linked to unresolved trauma and emotional suppression, and how they were compounded by the stigma surrounding mental health in the Black community.

💡Coping mechanisms

Coping mechanisms are strategies people use to deal with stress, trauma, or mental health challenges. The speaker describes unhealthy coping mechanisms he and others in the Black community have used, such as drinking alcohol or getting tattoos to deal with the pain of loss. He also mentions healthier alternatives like therapy and medication, which have helped him overcome his suicidal thoughts and work on his emotional well-being.

💡Representation in mental health

Representation in mental health refers to how different racial and ethnic groups are depicted in discussions and treatments of mental health. The speaker points out that Black individuals are rarely considered in mainstream mental health conversations, which tend to focus on white celebrities or stereotypical depictions of mental illness. He argues that it’s important to recognize the mental health struggles of Black people, such as himself, and include their experiences in the broader mental health narrative.

Highlights

Speaker introduces how people perceive him as strong, black, and compared to celebrities, but no one assumes he lives with depression and anxiety.

Describes his experience of being suicidal for 15 years, with multiple daily suicidal thoughts.

Challenges societal stereotypes about mental health, explaining that mental health issues in America are often attributed to white individuals or mass shooters, but rarely discussed in the context of black men.

Defines black mental health as the collective experiences of a community, with trauma being the biggest influencer.

Details historical and ongoing traumas affecting black communities, including slavery, Jim Crow, police violence, and intra-community violence.

Shares personal trauma, including witnessing his mother’s nervous breakdown when he was 13 years old and feeling helpless in the situation.

Recounts the loss of his brother to the opioid epidemic and how it affected his mental state.

Discusses how black men's depression and anxiety often manifest as anger and rage, rather than the stereotypical image of sadness and isolation.

Narrates his encounter with the police over a cup of juice, leading to 20-plus charges and his eventual expulsion from university.

Explains how the university incident became a turning point in his life, making him realize the need to change his approach to his mental health and behavior.

Highlights the importance of therapy and medication in managing his mental health, leading him from merely surviving to thriving.

Encourages black individuals to seek help for mental health issues, rejecting the idea of needing to 'wear a mask' or suppress emotions.

Calls on non-black individuals to recognize that black people may have gone through significant trauma and to be aware of the challenges they face.

Contrasts how mental health is perceived in America, citing examples of high-profile suicides among white celebrities like Anthony Bourdain and Robin Williams, while asking for similar attention to black lives affected by mental health struggles.

Concludes with a message of hope and empowerment, advocating for the importance of addressing mental health and supporting one another to move from survival to thriving.