January 27, 2011

My friend,

Many of us know of someone who is troubled, suffering inside. Perhaps you suffered or are suffering in silence. Many of us have watched from the sidelines as someone we know deteriorates before our eyes – he is unable to keep a job and maintain a relationship, appears disheveled, is no longer interested in things he used to enjoy, sleeps more than usual, and he might even have developed a dependency on drugs or alcohol. Worst of all, he feels empty and hopeless. Perhaps you felt you didn’t belong.

The only option he feels he has left is to remove himself from humanity. May be you know someone who did, and we who remain ask why.

From the outside, we try to understand, but many of us realize that we are incapable, we too are powerless to do anything. But, those who experienced and overcame the relentless pain in their heads can identify, they say “You Are Not Alone.”

Depression is a serious mental illness that could have devastating consequences; it does not have to. It is TREATABLE!

You may or may not be Black or gay; you may be Black and you may be gay, but you may know someone who is Black and gay. In many Black families, in our communities, and in societies gay men exist, yet because of the silence imposed by culture, the homophobia, stigma, and discrimination many experience, Black gay men are living hidden, secretive, and unfulfilled lives. Shouldn’t our Black gay men deserve to live wholesome and productive lives?

This link http://dbgm.info/ is a 2-minute trailer for a documentary, “You Are Not Alone”, in production. In it, courageous Black gay men are breaking the silence and a taboo in the Black community: they are speaking out about their depression. It is hoped that a Black gay man, through what he sees and hears in this documentary, could feel emboldened to know he is not alone, and find the courage to reach out for help.

Your support toward the completion of this documentary would provide a resource and encouragement for other Black gay men, especially young Black gay men who feel imprisoned, are struggling with their sexual identity, and acceptance in a world that rejects them, to know “You Are Not Alone”.

Kindly share this letter and trailer http://dbgm.info/ with your email networks and lists. Post it on your blogs and Facebook pages and encourage others to donate to the completion of this documentary.

Thank you for your generous support,

Yours,

AntoineB.

A pervasive phenomena in the Black community

By Antoine Craigwell

Toward the end of 2010, a series of events rocked everyone’s sensibilities: suicides, reports of bullying, and a combination of abuse and betrayal, all sharing depression as a common denominator.

When Rutgers University student Tyler Clementi jumped to his death from New York’s George Washington Bridge, he became one of more than 10 others across the country who had committed suicide. But while psychological experts attempted to allay fears of an epidemic, Clementi’s death highlighted bullying and harassment as facets of a pervasive problem affecting many in high schools and colleges. About the same time, though not as widely publicized, Raymond Chase, a 19-year-old African-American student at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhodes Island, who, it was reported, was harassed and bullied because he was gay, and felt the only way out was to hang himself in his dorm room. Also, not as widely reported was the death of 26-year-old Joseph Jefferson who hung himself in his Brooklyn, NY apartment. Jefferson’s suicide, as with Chase, left many unanswered questions for their respective families and friends, why.

For someone who is predisposed to depression, internal as well as external factors: biological – the function of essential neurochemicals in the brain and environmental – occurring outside a person, combine to hasten that downward spiral. From the environment, depression is caused by the vitriol spewing from many Christian leaders who preach that being gay is an abomination, and parents who subscribe to this destructive belief system by denying their son’s development feed into the alienation many feel. When young Black men, searching for their place in society see and hear politicians reinforcing stereotypes with legislation that deny them basic rights to be who they are and be accepted, they feel caught in a vortex. And, with popular culture making acceptable “no homo”, “faggot”, “sissy” and “gay” as negative language to demean and humiliate someone who is different, many struggling with their sexual identity find difficulty in fitting in and belonging to the human fabric. Each suicide irreparably rends of the connectedness and belonging to the fabric of humanity.

Adding his voice for more studies into depression in Black gay men, Louis Graham, MPH, says that although the most robust study of depression among Black gay men shows that Black men experience less depression than White gay men, Black gay men experience more suicidology. He argues, “Depression accompanies suicidology in 90 to 95-percent of the cases, so it is highly unlikely that Black gay men experience depression less than White gay men if they experience more suicidology.” Graham, a doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina, says of the limited studies into the mental health state of Black gay men, “we are measuring depression incorrectly among Black gay men. We cannot use the same tools to measure depression among Black gay men that we use among White gay men, because depression looks differently in Black gay men and Black gay men express symptomology differently.”

Many Black gay men may recount that every day is a battle against homophobia, from outside and within the Black community, against the memories of sexual abuse, the overt and covert racism and intra-racism, economic disparities, injustices, and stigma and discrimination. Thrown into this mix is the deeply psychologically scarring and anti-human effect of religion, particularly Christianity, which has been used as a tool in slave times to oppress and subjugate, and to stifle, repress, encourage ostracism and marginalization of those who feel an attraction to another of the same sex.

Still holding on to vestiges from slavery, in the Black community one never talks about his feelings to another. A Black man is encouraged to keep his thoughts and feelings to himself, put on a strong front, and never appear to be weak, since much is expected of him. Researchers have found that in the Black community, more Black men commit suicide than Black women. Those who were the victims of bullying and harassment at the hands of peers, colleagues, or pseudo friends may have insights, reconciling their differences or non-conformity, and being able endure and persevere. Many would argue that bullying, harassment and betrayal of trust by close friends and family are occurrences in anyone’s development, that one should simply “suck it up”, “move on”, and “get over it”. Moreover, for those who seemed to have survived the perils of their formative years, who later committed suicide, questions in need of answers remain.

Chase may have been unable to cope with the harassment and bullying from his peers and felt that he had nowhere else to turn. Jefferson may not have displayed any signs that he was battling issues so severe; it was reported that he never quite recovered from the death of his mother 10 years ago. While he was active and very involved in the Black gay community, a still unanswered question is why he felt the need to kill himself. Some suggested that the final straw, he didn’t feel he could trust the people he looked up to in the community.

While in the larger scope of things, there are other issues of greater import to the Black community, by their deaths, these two young men have refocused a light on a pervasive, still taboo, subject in the Black and Black gay community. However, one of the most important challenges facing this and the Black gay community is addressing the psychosocial health, including many of the underlying reasons for depression, among their respective men. For someone dealing with depression, out of many other possible actions, suicide is one of the ultimate acts. While the suicide of Chase and Jefferson in itself may not seem any more unusual, their deaths were significant as they sought to encourage more focusing on the reasons why they, like many before them, made that fatal choice. Their deaths encourage those who are struggling with the sense of hopelessness and emptiness, the feeling that they do not belong, and the persistent raging pain in their heads, to realize that asking for help, breaking the silence, the taboo, doesn’t make anyone less a man, weak or crazy.