Bill Cosby Forgot Mental Illness
For decades, because of their rather similar suffering and the common thread running through their histories, African Americans and American Jews looked at and talked to each other with great sympathy. Their past, crowded with pain, compelled them to consider themselves soulmates; and despite a recent palpable rift between the communities, there are unspoken conditions acknowledged by some, denied by others that plague the two people. Many Jews acknowledge and admit that mental health issues bedevil their community. African Americans, despite their blood drenched past refuse to even broach the subject of mental illness.
Many of my Jewish medical colleagues readily admit that they regularly avail themselves of mental health assistance and care. They are, they say, better for it. They suffer no repercussions nor are they regarded as lesser people by their community.
Like Bill Cosby, I have watched and written much about how the black community let its children down: by not being responsible parents; not working harder to curb inter-community violence, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse. Unlike Michael Eric Dyson, one of Cosby's bitter critic, I have applauded his courage to speak out, to withstand the arrows and slings of bitter opposition.
Bill Cosby and his corroborator, Dr Alvin Poussaint recently wrote, Come on People, a book in which they emphasize and tie personal responsibility to the community's progress. I too agree that blacks need to take care of each other; to reexamine their actions with more diligence. But the role mental health plays in the affairs of the community is at best glossed over.
I believe mental health needs to be more vigorously emphasized since it's central to everything that has transpired to black America over the last four hundred years. I don't by this suggest that black America place the burden of what ails it at white folks' door step, nor am I saying that America's white rulers' actions didn't exacerbate blacks' pain, magnifying the pain of mental illness.
Two taboo subjects exist for black Americans: male gay sex and mental illness. The refusal to discuss them has had devastating results; not the least of which is HIV/AIDS has become a disease of poor black women. And even as we refuse to discuss it, many blacks manifest symptoms of widespread and deep mental illness. Our jails are full of mentally ill blacks. Indeed much that black Americans do points to deep mental illness. Black America would do well to "out" mental illness. Manage it with therapy rather than incarceration.
Blacks are not different from other people. They do not enjoy pain, seeing their neighbors and siblings suffer, many spending long durations of their lives incarcerated. But most live lives of desperation, depressed and deeply mentally ill. Alcohol and "crack" cocaine are the anesthetics of choice for black America. Depression is a condition blacks didn't impose upon themselves; it's resulted from environmental and historical factors.
Unlike Professor Dyson, I don't think Cosby blames black victims. I do however feel that all well educated black Americans should be better informed about and be willing to discuss mental health in the black community. It's my hope that Cosby, Poussaint and others including Dyson, would entertain a wider debate about the role mental health plays in black Americans' daily lives.
As a physician I believe we must first acknowledge that there's a problem. Let's then talk about it and when appropriate entertain instituting therapy. I'm an advocate of talk therapy. Any two people can talk about "why" they do certain negative things. More can form groups that would discuss their feelings - how they react to life's issues, in anger, violently or with depression and suspicion. The involvement of groups serves two purposes: defining the problem, allowing everyone to realize they are not alone. In many instances, talking about mental problems, dealing with them head on is an important step towards a cure.
I wanted to know what many survivors of the Holocaust did once they realized they were free from the German Gestapo, gas chambers and certain death. Not all danced or enjoyed the sunlight; in fact many committed suicide. Bipolar conditions, depression, shame, a sense of worthlessness, all contributed to their not feeling "quite human." A generation later, their children acknowledge the pain and the weight of the Holocaust and all the terrors that befell Jews for many centuries. By acknowledging this, they have resorted to facing their demons; hence the ubiquitous therapy sessions that my friends attend. It allows the Jewish community to stay on an even keel.
It's not different for the black community. In view of the great black silence and unwillingness to discuss mental illness and health, it's imperative that leaders of the community meet to devise ways to confront this issue, which plagues and holds the community prisoner. Cosby's and Poussaint's voices must be added to a rising chorus to deal with the black mental health epidemic.
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I am a physician and I worked with AA adults and teens. Unfortunately, HIV/AIDS will continue to be a problem in the AA community because of myths about "promiscuity" and re-inforced by certain songs and videos. White Americans have as much if not more sex without the mental anguish, social or health consequences.
Additionally, many AAs try to solve their problems through their sexual behaviors. For example, condom use among AA men is discouraged as "weak" and risky sexual hook-ups as strength. Many AA female patients were resistant to pressing the use of condoms with their boyfriends because they felt he would feel distrusted or disrespected. Many said that as things were so hard on black men in America, the least they could do was show their love and support by ignoring the issue.
The issue of the"down low". AAs have problems discussing heterosexual sex much less homosexual sex. Even these "down low" men, when interviewed on their sexual habits for the medical history would evade the truth as if they had split personalities. We were forced to use terms like "men-who-have-sex-with-men" instead of homosexual. Unfortunately, many "down low" men had a history of childhood sexual abuse. Sadly, as these men never spoke about the abuse, the perpetrators were never prosecuted and they never received any mental health counseling. Strangely, I recall many openly gay AA men received mental illness counseling when homosexuality was considered a mental illness back in the 1980's.
Many things affect why Jews and AAs view mental illness differently:
1) Duration of the trauma: It is harder to recover from a multi-generational trauma (slavery) . I once read a research paper written after the emancipation that detailed the mental illnesses of the newly freed slaves. Back then, there were so many mental issues and no treatment available. Not much has changed.
2) Ongoing mental trauma from racism: AAs can not blend into the larger American society hence discriminatory practices that prevail until today (ex. driving while black). Studies have shown that AA's get less than adequate treatment even from physicians.
3) Influence and Affluence in a Society: Before the Holocaust, there were large numbers of Jews who were successful businessmen, lawyers, doctors and today they are influential world-wide. Some have spoken out about mental illness or sought treatment which allows others to feel that it is okay. It's still a taboo for AAs because we have no prominent members of our community promoting treatment. Also, we don't have the same finances or influence.
4)Talk Therapy and Faith: Jews have been able to openly express their pain on stage, TV, film or as comics on stage and there are many films on WWII and the Holocaust. When AAs try to do the same, white America gets very uncomfortable. Thankfully for African Americans, the church and gospel music have been outlets to express this pain. Faith in God has been very important to AA and Jews.
What an interesting article. I was raised in the inner-city in a predominantly black and hispanic neighborhood. I was able to make it out of the "hood" (barely), and I have often pondered the reasons & solutions for many of my friends struggles. The normal issues always come to mind such as the public school system, poverty, absence of fathers, etc etc.
But I've always wondered if it was something deeper, especially over the last couple of years since I have increased my knowledge of mental health and non-Western philosophies. This makes so much sense. Not only is there absolutely no awareness of extreme mental conditions like schizophrenia and the like, but the larger issue of widespread depression is not addressed. If I were to tell many of my old friends and acquaintances that many of the problems they experience daily are due to depression, I'd be laughed at and/or beaten up (exaggeration, sort of).
Perhaps an inner-city initiative to the powers and drawbacks of our mind and thoughts, and the conditions that come along with them is in order. Just to illuminate this dark are of knowledge I believe would do wonders for many.
I think the hesitance in addressing mental health has to do with the idea of "not appearing weak". Many posit that if one needs external help to deal with their own mind then that is a sign of weakness. The AA culture in many cases shuns that which is weak. However, that thought of as strength may not be strength at all, but a denial, a blindness to see. I read your comment and thought about some of my own childhood friends. Tough and smart kids, who grew into adults (those that did) that run the gamut of "accomplishment", outlook, and mental state of awareness and health. There was already a world here when each of us emerged from the womb. There was already a history, a storyline, a propaganda, a machine of information distortion as well as dissemination or dispersal. Parents were programmed as were their parents and their parents... I read once how the rote memorization system of teaching was all about preparing people for the rigors of repetitive factory work to successfully usher in the industrial age.
Subtle messages are passed the world over to the world’s people every day. Competing, complimentary, and/or conflicting information exists all the time. Knowing who and what to trust can prove tricky, especially when you are just getting out in the world. The African American has had to fight a tremendous battle for their psyche because it has been under-siege since day-one by the enveloping society.
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pragmaticdallasite
What you say is precisely what I am suggesting.
A sustained dialogue among all of us. There has to be an understanding of what ails people before they can manage what ails them. My hypothesis is: blacks have deep mental issues that have not been investigated, accepted and dealt with by the community. Once we have admitted we have an issue, then we must find what more we can all do. ALL OF US. Starting with Cosby, our church leaders, NAACP, etc.
And families - in our own homes. Talk about what is happening in our homes: the anger we can't explain, the violence that comes from nowhere; the angst and deep pain that occupy our lives.
The recent Chris Brown assault of Rihanna; Mike Tyson's behavior - all point to one thing. Mental instability. Our jails are full of mentally ill black youth - and we are doing nothing for them. NOTHING
It's a pity that mental health issues continue to be stigmatized in the US (in all communities). I don't see any difference between mental and physical health. If you get the flu, nobody thinks twice if you go to the doctor for it (assuming you have access to a doctor). But if you get depressed, they think you're just being a wimp or whatever and besides psychologists and counselors aren't "real" health professionals anyway.
Insurance coverage for mental health issues also only very very recently got parity with physical health and I'm not even sure it's fully implemented yet.
I think this is why addiction treatment programs have been underfunded and marginalized for so long too -- addiction is often tied up with mental health problems, and people would just rather blame somebody for being weak or immoral or whatever than acknowledging they have genuine mental, physical, or physiological health issues.
Wow! I'm so glad someone finally said it: The progeny of soul suffers at the soul, and one of the results is mental illness. Furthermore, thanks for placing a fair share of the AIDS epidemic at the feet of those "on the down low," because by skipping this point, it remains very easy to leave in place the stereotype that black women are all promiscuous.
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OnTheCusp
Black women are no more promiscuous than others. What many black women have is uncertanty; poor role models; a society that doesn't give them validation and LOVE. Black girls need education; empowerment to say NO to men -- young and old. Somewhere and sometime we must impress upon black boys that parenthood is legit. That it is not disgraceful to admit to being a dad. And LIFE - THEIRS AND THAT OF OTHERS - IS PRECIOUS. In the end, much of what black girls do and what black boYs and men do is a reflection of their mental set up - deep disturbances.
I'd like to mention from outside the African-american community,indeed outside the US, what I've heard from friends and co-workers about urban US schools, and perhaps you can tell me more. I've heard that African-american high school students are usually hopeless about their futures, other than having dreams about stardom in music or athletics--sounds like a real stereotype of the kids, I know, but who else do they know about who makes it out of their neighborhood and stays alive? Just Michelle Obama!
I'm living with, and an activist for, mental illness in Canada. Mental illness is still poorly understood scientifically, but it does have physical and chemical causes and effects in the human brain. Just as important are things like nutrition. (before, during, after pregnancy), love and family, spirituality and religion, physical environment like lead pollution, and the need for purpose and a life that has meaning. Of course, good medical care, and good specialist care for any psychological problems is necessary;
I know many of these are not present in the majority of African-american peoples lives today, but some of them are strong there. The denial of racism in North America today, and the forgetting of history, are spurs to depression, and hopelessness (supported by the media) has to be confronted by hopeful action! Truth and action lead to health.
When someone, whoever, told you that African American students are usually hopeless about their futures, did you just believe that? Did you consider the source? And let us say, for the sake of argument, that the blanket statement is true. What does it say for those who run the schools or the society that pays all that money to keep school open? What would the point be, then? Since schools are, for the most part, segregated, would in not make sense to close all those high schools where the student population is predominately Black? Why waste the time? Why not turn those schools into recording studios and gymnasiums? Wouldn't that then ensure their futures, as an appeal to all that they are interested in?
Seems to me that all high school students have dreams, not unlike most people, don't you think? Is it terribly productive to dissuade them from their dreams or perhaps help them expand upon such notions?
What would a sane society recommend?
Not all African Americans live in the same enviroment. So we don't all share the same perspective or suffer from extreme mental conditioning. Some who are subjected to adverse environments could greatly benefit and recognize their own need for treatment. Money for treatment is a bigger factor than the denial of need. Suffering silently, on the verge of rage, suicide and/or self-destruction, best describes the state of many African Americans. We are exhausted by the experience. Good mental healthcare is a luxury.
The article had some truth to it but really left out why Mental ILLness. The Jews, African Americans, American Indian all have one thing in common a history of wrong doing. Whenever you take away a persons ability to think you have stripped him of his life. Whether, we want to admit it there is still a red line drawn for minorties. You say , how do you know that, well look at the schools that are in the poor areas of black childrenand then compare them to the white schools 10 miles away. No child left behind was a joke to the poor areas. Another factor in the African American community is their are no dads. It is a known fact that children do better when dad is in the home and I'm not talking about an abusive father but I'm simply telling the truth we need the fathers in the homes. Mental ILLness is I believe is genetic. I've seen just as many white people with the illness as well as blacks. Their is a solution to this and it is we all need to look in the mirror and not criticize but look into that mirror and say how can I chang this injustice. It is what it is.
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Flavor:
I agree with you. Men - black and white - need to be dads; real dads to their families. This is in fact Cosby's message. I agree with all Cosby says; adding one more thing. Think of mental illness; one of the reasons why black men shun their responsibility of fatherhood. Mental health issues need discussing and dealing with.
Thanks.
Pius Kamau
It was stated that in the 60s and 70s, some father's would look at their children and feel ashamed because they were nothing by societies' standards and the life that society saw for them in terms of how it treated them became self-fulfilling prophecy. They became the irresponsible person, because that is how society treated them -- irresponsibly (that is the mirror society held up), not like they mattered and had value, from baby, to adolescent, to young adult, to adult. Many internalized this societal message and it manifested in a negative way in many homes.
No excuses taken or given, just the facts as they played and play out, void of spin, obfuscation, denial, and ridiculous justifications for being less than a just society. The father needs to be a father, but the society needs to be a better fostering environment for fathers, responsibility is not a one-way service road for servicing one’s agenda of denial. Bill Cosby is not the enemy. He told the truth. People were upset because of the perceived airing of family business in public. But whispering has not helped. His statements were not all of the story but a crucial part...which is -- self-determination and perseverance...which is -- no one is going to feel sorry for you and you have to take charge of your own life. There is no pity in the naked city, better come on in doors and get in out of the cold.
...anyway, thanks Mr. Kamau
May the fact we have an African-American President of the United States who gives the impression of being and may arguably be the most mentally sane person alive go a long way in helping this very real problem of African-American mental illness.
I think most of us realize that while we applaud Mr. Obama's blackness, he has not really descended through the path of most Black Americans (his father was Kenyan) and he grew up in a "white" home and therefore was subject to the usual doubts etc. that are "passed along" in the typical black family.
As for the author, he is spot on. I am sitting here before this computer in an utter state of mental and physical disrepair, from having spent my entire life living with and caring for a mentally ill mother. Actually, she was a stark raving lunatic who spent most of her sick life leading us a merry chase. The damage she left amongst her children is incredible and hard to get past. Most of us have some off brand relative in our families and we seemed to have more than our share. My mother and her brother were both simply insane while a couple of others suffered from depression. I felt incredible sorrow for the four little girls who's mother killed them because I know what they suffered. As for Bill Cosby? God bless him because when he's gone there will be no one left to truly voice their love for black people as he does, because that is what it is, love for his people. Perhaps if they would stop listening to butt holes like Jay-Z and Russell Simmons they would know this.
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I agree. Let's tak about it. Let's open our minds and our mouths and talk about it in our schools; in our churches and in our homes. Organize discussion groups of grown ups - men and women - to discuss where we are mentally and where we can go and what our potential as a people is. So much can be accomplished with TALK.
Thanks.
Pius Kamau
Actually, if you think about it, the psychology of brown people is pretty amazing. With all that the collective has endured, it still exists. Large segments of the community are thriving (though that part of the story remains under-reported), and with the exception of a riot here, a drive-by there, the masses of brown folks remain a peaceful loving people. I do not mean to minimize the very real psychological challenges that exist ( I have a dear friend I am concerned about at this very moment who is struggling with the yoke of his existence), but I wanted to pay homage to the brighter side of the story. We need to redefine crazy. Surely seeing people as three-fifths of a human was crazy, but we revere the very people who wrote that insanity as law to found a nation (they are on the money). Surely lynching, beating, raping, kidnapping, and generally denigrating a people was crazy, yet, we founded a nation on that and proclaimed greatness on the world stage until very sane brown, yellow, red, white, and black people raised world-wide opposition to that faux claim of greatness as the water hose sprayed on and the sad notes of Miles, Coltrane, and Gillespie played on. There is illness. There is also the triumph of mind over hate, I see it in the comments below. I see it in the world around me. Progress is slow, but progress can be marked for the black psychology.
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GarinOSand:
History. That's the catch. Look back at the lenght of 400 years; wha happened in all those years. They left an indelible imprint on the black peope of America. We would like to belive all was erased in 1954' or with Civil Rights' Acts and the moveement. But alas, it's like a chronic illness that lives on with a patient until it kills him. The treatment here is EASY: Get to know the illness; Talk about it and expunge it from our minds.
Thanks.
Pius.
"indelible imprint" -- you mean the one that is often denied -- often pooh-poohed as irrelevant to anything that is pertinent today?
I always say the only way to truly know if the results of today would be different...given a different history, is to switch roles for the next four-hundred. Now, that is a mean thing to say, and of course I do not really mean I would ever want to be an enslaver or be part of a brutal system that enslaves (no matter who -- all humans are worthy of love -- even the haters). Whenever I suggest this idea to someone who insists there is no impact, no indelible imprint of history upon the now, it is always an interesting response. I say, let us experiment to determine the validity of that claim. Let us see if all things were equal would all things (or so many things) still be unequal. This applies to gender discrimination as well.
Quickly, on mental health I find that to stay at peace it is best to be open, to talk, to think, to love (crucial), and to not allow poison to saturate in the mind. Professional help is advisable, and brown people need to see such help as family outreach versus a visit to the doctor to get their head looked at -- the stigma needs to be removed. We need a community wide, sustained -- rap session -- beyond the church as well as in the church.
Pius;
The antipathy toward male gay sex displayed by many of the African communities in the Americas does have a historical component.
Rape is about power, not sex and in many Caribbean and American plantations it was meted out to both men and women alike.
Men (our fathers) were often emasculated in public by slavemasters as a reminder of dominance, much like that which occurs in prisons today.
Women (our mothers) were raped whenever the master pleased and wherever, it was his property. This further underlined the hopelessness of the men and spawned the word mother***ker.
Just like the origins of the word mother***ker have been shrouded with time, so has the antipathy toward male gay sex , but the root cause is the same....
The only real matter, papa, is that who sits in the seat of power gets to decide who is crazy and who is not. The more Black people try to be like white people is the crazier we are. We didn't start acting this crazy until we decided that "equality" mean being able to live in the same neighborhoods with them.
Assimilation has made for (to quote Ms. Maddow) "Quackitude".
I'm sorry but I don't believe that. Crazy comes from trying to deal with slavery being abolished and racial hatred replacing it; crazy comes from being turned out of having something of a home to having no home at all; crazy comes from working cotton fields to no work at all; crazy come from no schooling, no health care, always being thought of and pegged as brain damaged, not bright enough to be considered equal, and definitely from whites labeling anything black as intrinsically evil; crazy comes from Jim Crow, back of the bus, 100 plus years of being smacked down, beat down, trampled on, having other races stand on your shoulders to move ahead, the welfare destruction of the black family, and some more stuff I can't even name. We used to try with all our hearts and souls to send our kids to college, but white folks threw such hissy fits that's practically dead. Now, we've simply given up trying anymore and that's Cosby's point.
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papapj:
Great info.
Let's talk about it so we can all become more comfortable about the infomation and the facts. Gays come in all colors - black, Brown, white, etc.; despite what slave masters did so long ago. And as a by the way, Arabs in Darfur are raping black girls, women, boys and men to dominate, silence and emasculate the black race there. But that is another story - RIGHT?
Mnay thanks.
Pius Kamau.
(1 of 2)
Brother Pius;
You say that we should talk openly about our problems in order to come to a greater understanding of who we are and how we got here. This is fine, but any discussion of pathology in our community must be accompanied by a similar discussion in the White community about the pathological DENIAL many of them suffer from.
To say that most White people are in denial is not racist, because such a belief is not based on stereotypes about Whites; rather, the claim is supported by what they themselves actually say when asked if they believe racism to be a significant problem. The vast majority, in poll after poll answer that it is not, irrespective of the evidence to the contrary shown in just about every social index showing EAs performing better than any other ethnic group.
(2 of 2)
This racial illiteracy on the part of White people is part of the hegemonic power of Whiteness. Through a historical mythology, White supremacy has a vested interest in denying what is most obvious: the privileged position of Whiteness. For most people who are described as White, since race is believed to be "something" that shapes the lives of people of color, they come across a huge blind spot in their understanding of ways in which their own lives and our public policies are shaped by the sociologically arbitrary designation of race. Everything is touched by it. Economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war.
Systemic racism is not merely a matter of individual attitudes, but the result of centuries of subordination and objectification that reinforce population control policies.
We can wax lyrical forever about the problems we in the Black community face and the strain it puts on our mental health and our family units and this is good to know for ones own sanity. But to do nothing about the ROOT CAUSE it becomes moot if White denial is not even recognized as a problem by those who are oblivious (sometimes stridently) of it...
This entire nation is nuts. How else does it justify its origins and how it has had to live that. How does it bury its origin? How long can slavery and mass murder be denied of justified? It is a nation that has never had an extended period when it was not at war with another nation. How does this nation justify the human despair that lies just beneath its veneer of wealth?
No wonder Black people are crazy. How does any person or group of persons live amongst the contradictions presented by this bizarrely stupid group of people? Black people are crazy because they have convinced themselves that some this is some semblance of normal. Crazy is lying to one's self and no people on earth lie as well as this peculiar North American breed. The paradox is that Back people are more normal than any other people here.
The only difference between crazy and not crazy is who knows for sure that they are in the asylum and those who are in denial of even that fact, despite the all too obvious walls and fences that define America.
"Nervous breakdown". If you are black, chances are you've heard all mental illness referred to that way. It implies that the person who suffered said "nervous breakdown" is somehow to blame for it because they are too weak or spoiled.
I once suffered a bout of college freshman-homesick depression many years ago that lasted for months and I was so confused about what was happening to me, I went to an emergency psychiatric hospital. They put me in a room with an older black woman, (a so-called counselor) who proceeded to talk to me about Jesus. I was so angry, I can't even comment about what I wanted to do but because I was 23, I just sat there. Instead of giving me some real help, they profiled me and decided I would benefit from a counselor who would sit there and tell me I need to get over myself because she had twin babies that almost didn't live and blah blah blah. I'm an atheist. I went there for help and some answers and all I got was this lady telling me her problems and trying to sell me Jesus. She was black like me and also a certified counselor. Therein lies the problem.
We must improve our educational system because black children are the ones being sucked into fairy tale land and not learning enough in school but plenty in the church. That's a recipe for back @sswardness. It must stop.
My heart goes out to you. Like you, I was raised to believe that enough faith in God would fix any ill. Like you, I am now an athiest as a result of so many failures while trying to "pray it better". When I entered the mental health arena it took me far too long to separate myself from the "righteous answers" and to come to the right answers for myself and my own well being.
I hope that you have found peace for your life. The day that I accepted the idea that I could choose differently, is the day that I found my peace. Best wishes.
Yeah, good for you. I'm actually a Deist, but I went through a similar upbringing. But it wasn't until I realized that I wasn't a terrible person, because "faith in God" in the Christian sense didn't sit well with me, that's when I was able to find peace. And I had to realize that even though my mother is a great woman, and did what was best for me, I couldn't come to her with real problems. Because of what Ohioian described. Praying are problems away is not going to help us. We have to recognize that, and we neeed to educate our young alot better on these issues.
Pt 1.
Beautiful, important article - thank you.
Slavery must be studied, dissected and analyzed in order to OVERstand the long lasting effects of slavery. When a group of people are purposefully stripped of everything that makes them who they are, it's inevitable that they be literally out of their mind. Slaves weren't allowed to speak their own languages, practice their own religions, father their children, protect their women, nurture their babies or culturally be who they had been for 1000's of years. The difference between us and Jews is that their genocide occurred over a few years, while ours occurred over many continuous generations - Jews still had full knowledge of the language, culture, history and traditions - all of the things that make for a healthy society.
Cont. below...
Pt. 1.5
Think about it, if a man forcibly kept from being a husband, a provider, a father, a leader, etc. - for 7-8 generations - it's no surprise that there are some "dead beat" dads that don't take care of their children. They were bred that way. During slavery your child could be snatched and sold at the whim of someone else and unless you were Nat Turner their was nothing you could do about it.
Dr. Na'im Akbar is one of the foremost experts in this field. I remember a lecture tape of his where he explained how psychology was used to further enslave African Americans. He cited two psychological "disorders" slave were diagnosed w/ - one was for slaves who didn't want to work and the other was for slaves who purposely broke their tools - these were disorders to the psychiatrist of the day. I say this to say, not only is it necessary for us to take our mental health seriously, but it's also important to get help from mental health professionals and counselors who know and overstand the key causation of many of the problems.
Cont. below...
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