Trauma. A deeply distressing or disturbing experience. A 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. A disorder in which a person 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 present day, the 21st century, and it has had a devastating impact on their mental health. Slavery, segregation, and oppression haven’t been abolished; they have just been rewritten as to what is suitable for America’s morals. Theorotically, lynching is still legal and Congress is okay with that—the United States Congress has never made lynching a federal crime because of compelling objection from Southern senators. Black people commonly depend on their faith to maintain hope in seeing change, substantially because their daily mental experiences are blemished from distrust of medical and legal systems in our country. 

African-Americans’ mental health issues are not reported as often compared to white Americans because 63% of Black people believe that admitting mental health challenges is a sign of weakness. This results from the trauma of several Black lives taken in the hands of law officials 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 which haunts Black Americans to this day is The Red Summer, when Black Veterans of World War I were forced to protect themselves and their communities against mobs of white people, causing more than 250 African-Americans to be lynched.

         We put our mental health last because we are not the group of people who have the luxury of asking for help. Among the population, 43% of people who receive government assistance (SNAP, EBT, welfare) are white, while 13 million people who still live in poverty don’t receive any help through government assistance or any welfare programs. This tells you that Black Americans are in distress, overwhelmed with 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. 

The most educated women in America are Black women. Yet the most disrespected women in America are Black women. The most neglected women in America are Black women. In the United States, Black Women face discrimination in the education system, the media industry, and in the healthcare 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 3 times higher than a white woman, which means white women are treated with more respect and care during their pregnancy. 

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, paying all the bills, schooling, and discrimination in the workplace. Usually the stress of giving birth is built up from the nine months of carrying a baby. Some Black women don’t have the support from a paternal figure and research shows that Black women are least likely to get married due to colorism and society’s standards of the “ideal woman,” which forces some to be completely independent during and after their pregnancies. Forcing Black women to give birth while being denied and neglected the proper medical attention should be manslaughter due to the assumption of the doctor’s own belief. 

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 wants African-Americans to move on and forget about what happened, our history, our ancestors, our native tongue, our tribes—they want 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 been up 71% in the previous decade. That is due to stress, pressure of being their family’s breadwinner, and persistently wearing a target on their back—at the mall, playground, school, work, and even on their own porches.

We have open wounds.

Stop giving us a band aid.