Conference to look at how racism affects mental health

[CShine]

Bob Marley spun racism into reggae music, while Washington-area sniper Lee Boyd Malvo devolved into violence and self-destruction, according to organizers of an upcoming conference that will consider their different responses and the mental health effects of racism. The conference at Meharry Medical Center tomorrow, called "Creativity and Madness in the African Diaspora," will examine how racism and the legacy of slavery pushes some black people either to acts of heroism or creative genius, while others are pushed into violence and mental illness.

While most African-Americans are somewhere between the two extremes, they are shaped psychologically by racial oppression, said conference organizer Denise Shervington, chairwoman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Meharry. Shervington, a psychiatrist, once had a client who was a successful professional but whose personal life was marred by a series of romantic failures. The client couldn't stay in a relationship and wondered why, she said. Six months into therapy, the man began to realize that his body image was getting in the way. His dark skin color and the shape of his nose was affecting the way he thought of himself. That poor self-image is part of a legacy of racism, Shervington said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has documented disparities in the mental health issues facing African-Americans vs. other races and ethnicities. Since 1980, suicide has doubled among young black men, according to the CDC. And because African-Americans are over-represented among the homeless, incarcerated, children in foster care and residents of high-crime neighborhoods, they are exposed to more risk factors for mental illness. African-Americans also are less likely to seek treatment than are their white counterparts.

Those are among the factors that have led Shervington and others to coin the term "post-traumatic slavery disorder."

http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/06/53278319.shtml?Element_ID=53278319

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Oh, sh*t. They must have been reading my posts.

Well, if someone was told their entire lives that they belong to a worthless, lazy race, don't you think it might have an effect on their self-esteem?

[mbperrin]

2. Mmmmm...before anybody beats me to it,

substitute your favorite aphorism here:

When the going gets tough....

It's not the size of the dog in a fight...

and other shit that absolutely does nothing about a problem, but it's FREE, leaving us to spend BILLIONS and BILLIONS on killing brown people who live near valuable natural resources...speaking of racism, sexism, and a whole lotta other isms!