The world is not particularly friendly to Black mental health. The constant reminders of Black oppression, the pandemic, and now, remote learning, have taken an exhausting toll on the mental health of Black teens.

Black teens across the country are facing burnout, a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. Burnout looks differently for Black teens than teens of other demographics, as the taboo nature of mental health in the Black community means issues such as burnout often go unaddressed, and develop into more serious mental health issues such as depression. There is a present disconnect between Black teens and their parents over the severity and importance of mental health issues, that leaves Black teens feeling invisible within their own homes. 

Black parents often grow up in environments without readily accessible mental health resources. Discussions relating to anxiety, depression, difficulties dealing with anger, stress, and other challenges faced by today’s black parents in their youth were not usually had. Black parents cannot foster mentally healthy and safe environments, without the knowledge of how to create these environments for themselves. Mental health can and should be a partnership between parent and child. Black parents should seek out mental health resources for both themselves and their children, allowing both parties to learn coping strategies, and ways to effectively communicate their unique struggles. 

It is crucial to recognize that the beginning of a mental health journey is rarely easy or simple. Black adults are less likely to seek out mental health treatment as a result of existing distrust between the Black community and healthcare professionals. Black adults are more likely, if at all, to seek out Black therapists or mental health professionals, who account for only 4% of all mental health professionals working in the United States.

Although there is valid reason for hesitation, we owe it to ourselves to seek out and try therapy and other behavioral health supports, as mental health disproportionately affects Black people. Black teenagers are 3% more likely to commit suicide than their white counterparts, and Black adults experience feelings of sadness and worthleness more frequently than white adults. These statistics can be attributed to numerous factors: poverty, race, insecurities, and several others. More important than the statistics, is the action we take to combat them.

To the Black teen or parent who may want to begin their mental health journey, there are mental health resources that have been curated for the Black experience. Therapy for Black Girls encourages the accessibility of mental health resources to Black women and young girls specifically. The website includes a tool to find Black therapists, and a blog that can help to begin to educate Black women on how to begin advocating for their mental health.

Unrelated but similar, is Therapy For Black Men, which works to provide therapy options for Black men, as well as educate Black men on the mental health issues in the Black community as a whole.

If you are not yet ready for therapy but still want to dip your toe in the pool of mental health, podcasts are a great tool. Podcasts can be either an individual or shared experience, and can allow us to reflect on our own experiences, and try tools mentioned by podcast hosts. Podcasts such as Let’s Talk Bruh, Brown Girl Self Care, and Black Mental Health Podcast are great starting points. These podcasts are hosted by Black people with mental health experience, and their target audience is Black people. They are understanding voices, who are no stranger to the stigma, the struggle, and bravery in discussing mental health.

We have to first be there for ourselves, before we can be there for our friends and families. Mental health should not be stigmatized. It should be a communal effort and goal to improve the mental health of the Black community.

Black people should not be invisible to each other in a country where we are both hyper visible and invisible.  We have to see each other. Black teens, I see you. Black parents, I see you. Black people, I see you.

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Art credits: Melissa Koby, @mkoby_ on Instagram

A Black mecca. This is what I knew of where I lived as a child. Harlem was the breeding ground for African-American culture. It was the home of the Harlem Renaissance where several Black artists, writers, and visionaries expressed their artistic genius in unprecedented ways during the early 20th century. It has served influential residents, such as Malcolm X and Langston Hughes. It is the home of the Apollo Theater, where several legendary Black artists began their careers, most notably jazz singers Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. 

Growing up in Harlem showed me at an early age the livelihood of Black culture, and how important it is for that culture to have room to thrive. This early life lesson has made it increasingly troublesome to witness the dimming of the light that is Harlem. 

The Red Lobster and the Banana Republic have made the famous Apollo Theater look out of place. There are Starbucks on Harlem street corners where there were not before. The Whole Foods located on Malcolm X Boulevard is arguably the largest physical representation of the changing Harlem. Harlem’s residents deserve fresh and accessible produce among the other consumer goods brought by these businesses, but that is not all that comes with the opening of major businesses in neighborhoods where these businesses have been historically absent.

Gentrification is not an issue specific to Harlem, it occurs in urban areas across the country. It often works through the migration of wealthy residents into urban areas, along with these residents comes businesses such as Banana Republic and Whole Foods. This process raises the economic value of neighborhoods, placing its current residents in positions of home insecurity. 32,500 Black Harlem residents moved out of the area, while 22,800 white residents moved into it, between 2000 and 2005. 

Gentrification is ultimately problematic because there is a lack of community investment that follows the migrations of these businesses and residents. The resources and money put into integrating these businesses into the Harlem community are not applied to pre-existing infrastructures such as Harlem’s several public schools and Black businesses. Although research points to gentrification providing new jobs for urban areas, in several cases these new opportunities are not enough to sustain the original, typically low-income residents of these neighborhoods.

Gentrification does not have to push residents out of their neighborhoods. Demanding that newly built housing is affordable and relative to the income of the neighborhood’s current residents is a solution several community leaders in Harlem and other urban areas are presenting. Knowing your elected representatives is more important than one may think. Local officials are often the ones most involved in bringing these changes to our Harlem community, and resident input could be the key to maintaining the Harlem that has allowed Black residents to not only exist fully and safely but also prosper for so long.

Harlem is not a neighborhood that is made by its businesses, it is one that is made by the colorful and unique people who inhabit it. Gentrifying Harlem has cultural implications. The destruction of historic buildings such as 22 West, a restaurant that was often visited by Malcolm X and Black jazz musicians, for newer business opportunities, treats Harlem’s history as trivial.

Harlem is a cultural powerhouse. Gentrification brings a modern change in the form of economic opportunity and we cannot expect to be exempt from this change while the communities around us adapt to it. However, a change that ignores cultural history and the needs of the residents a neighborhood was created to serve is no change at all– it is a regression.

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Featured image from the New York Magazine article “Gentrification in Harlem, in Photos” by Christopher Bonanos

Rihanna’s 2020 Savage X Fenty show featured one of the most diverse casts of models the modeling world has ever seen. The show displayed Savage X Fenty’s capsule collection and featured a range of models and performers of different ethnicities, gender identities and body types. The show challenged former lingerie giant Victoria’s Secret’s outdated notions of what is deemed sexy, with the use of plus sized and transgender models. 

The diversity in models extended onto the Savage X Fenty site, where plus size male model Steven Green is featured. The reaction to Green’s photos on the website was overwhelmingly positive on social media sites. Many Twitter users stated that Green’s body type allowed them to feel seen, commending Rihanna for her conscious efforts to promote body inclusivity and positivity. 

The social media reaction to performer Lizzo’s Instagram post relating to her participation in the show is a clear demonstration of why fashion brands need to follow in Rihanna’s footsteps, and promote body types outside of what is considered conventional. In contrast with Green’s appraisal, Lizzo’s post was met with vomit emojis and anonymous commenters “praying for her weight loss journey.”

Green faced criticism as well, with social media users deeming him unhealthy based on one image. The body positivity movement is one that affects both men and women, and aims to challenge America’s outdated standards of what it means to be healthy and beautiful.

The standard for beauty in America has historically been white, straight hair, and a thin body. This standard does not allow for diversity in beauty nor is it representative of the diversity of American society. A Psych Guide study found that American women have the worst perceptions of their own bodies globally. The fat acceptance movement in the late 60s, originated by Black women, was the first public challenge to this damaging notion of beauty. It called for the societal acceptance of fat women in the workplace and fashion, and forced fat acceptance to be adopted as an issue within the feminist movement of the 60s.

In the 1990s, the fat acceptance movement transformed into the body positivity movement, which has recently pushed fashion brands to rethink their perceptions of consumers’ bodies decades later. Several fashion brands have created plus sized sections within their stores and expanded their sizing. However, these changes are not solely in support of the body positivity movement, they are careful marketing tools for fashion brands.

Some brands have elected to ignore the diversity of the body positivity movement, exclusively using white plus size models for shoots or fashion shows. After Victoria’s Secret’s chief marketing officer faced backlash, both on social media and in their sales, for comments stating that trans and plus sized women could not sell the Victoria’s Secret fantasy, the brand hired Ali-Tate Cutler. Cutler is a white British plus-sized model. The commodification of the movement by fashion brands has left women of color, the originators of the movement, in the shadows. The fashion brand led version of the body positivity movement has also failed to account for men. The rare plus size man that is represented, is white. 

Not only are the plus sized models who are placed into the spotlight typically white, they usually share a similar figure, one that is “acceptably fat.” This leaves women such as Lizzo and men such as Steven Green open to criticism from uneducated commenters, while models such as Ashley Graham and Iskra Lawrence are considered attractive by society at large.

Rihanna speaks frequently about diversity in the fashion industry, and takes the action to promote it. It is not enough to create a plus sized section anymore. There is not a uniform body that represents all plus-sized people. It is incredibly important to highlight diverse plus-size bodies. The body positivity movement does not aim to fit within the standards that society has already created, it aims to get rid of the standard altogether and allow us to understand that each of us is truly beautiful.

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Art credits: Reyna Noriega, @reynanoriega_ on Instagram

On May 17, 1954, the United States Supreme Court determined that segregated schools infringed upon the privileges and liberties of United States citizens. The Brown v. Board ruling meant that segregated schooling was not allowed within the United States. Yet 66 years later, more than half of the nation’s students attend segregated schools.

Segregated schools can have detrimental effects, and these effects disproportionately disrupt the academic and personal lives of Black and Latinx students. With the 2020-2021 academic year around the corner, it is important to recognize how students in segregated schools will likely be left behind in the age of COVID-19 learning.

Funding for schools in the United States partly comes from property taxes. This means that students from lower-income neighborhoods with low property values are receiving less funding and consequently fewer resources than their wealthier peers. A 2019 Washington Post report found that predominantly white school districts received $23 billion more in funding than non-white school districts. Lower-income and higher-income neighborhoods are often segregated, with white students predominantly living in wealthier communities.

Neighborhood segregation is a result of years of housing discrimination against Black and Latino families during the early 20th century and the Jim Crow era. It has created two different types of schooling experiences for white and non-white students.

The absence of white students can often mean an absence of resources, which has proven to be problematic for many predominantly Black and Latinx public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 forced learning into online spaces such as Zoom and Google Classroom, and the transition was smoother for some schools than others.

According to the recent New York Times article “As School Moves Online, Many Students Stay Logged Out”, many poorly funded public schools could not provide their students with access to the technology necessary to learn online, leaving many students out of touch with their classes for the remaining half of the school year. 

In situations where technology was provided to low income students, many of their parents identified as essential workers and were still expected to attend their jobs. Parents not being present during the online school day can make a big difference, especially for elementary school learners who may need help getting through their classes. It is a privilege to be able to stay home and help your young child learn, a privilege that is, unfortunately, most often accessible to high income and white households. Older students could be expected to care for their younger siblings while their parents are at work, leaving them with priorities other than their online education. 

The already present inequalities that exist within segregated schools coupled with the new challenges remote learning has presented will likely lead to a widening of the achievement gap between black and white students. The achievement gap is based on test scores, but exposes a problem of accessibility between students of different racial groups.

The achievement gap, and the lack of accessibility that causes it, could be challenged by a movement for racial integration in schools.

Racial integration in schools has proven to be beneficial for both black and white students. A study done in 2017 by the National Coalition on School Diversity points to improved academic achievement for both black and white students, as well as lower high school dropout rates. The study also points to anecdotes from students, explaining that attending school with students of multiple backgrounds allowed them to be more well rounded individuals as adults.

Organizations such as IntegrateNYC are protesting in favor of school integration by challenging city government policies and referencing statistics similar to these. The fight for racial integration in schools is not only one for students, but for faculty, government officials, and people across the country.

Geographic or economic factors should never be a determinant in the type of education a student receives. Across the country, several Black and Latinx students have been placed in the shadows and subjected to an inadequate education while their white peers were given every opportunity to succeed. Separate will never be equal.

Black and Latinx students deserve their fair chance to learn in a classroom that is properly resourced and diverse. It is time the United States gives us that chance.

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photo credits: CNN