For the Love of Bebe & Our Mental Health
Researched/Written by The Free Black Women's Library Summer Interns
Hello Substack Friends!!
July is Minority Mental Health Awareness Month and although we have issues with the word minority being used to describe Black people, The Free Black Women’s Library feels this initiative is worth exploring and amplifying especially because it was launched by best-selling author and mental health advocate Bebe Moore Campbell.
Winner of several awards Campbell has penned wonderful texts for both children and adults and is a favorite of The Free Black Women’s Library community, not just for her charming relatable characters but for all of the amazing work she did to uplift awareness around the importance of mental health in the Black community.
I asked each of my brilliant summer interns to do a little research and write a small reflection on mental health within the Black community and they truly understood the assignment.
I am including all the information they discovered in this as well as their powerful writing. I am extremely proud of the thought and work they put into this. Keep in mind they are all only 16 years old. They have also chosen to remain anonymous in their personal reflection pieces.
Essay #1
The Importance Of Mental Health Awareness & Why Our Community Needs to Focus More On It
If we don’t spread awareness of the importance of mental health in our Black communities we won't heal from our trauma, our children will continue to suffer and violence will continue to happen within the community.
According to an ABC News report an article titled “Child abuse report: Deaths of Black children up in pandemic” 504 Black children have died, which is 73% more than their last documented count, making our children three times more likely to die due to child abuse and neglect. Throughout our lives we’ve been taught to discipline our children based on what we’ve been disciplined with, however, we don’t often like to admit that a lot of our discipline is based on generational trauma and the mental illness it’s brought us. We never fully healed or recovered from watching what happened to our ancestors and what happens to us daily whether it’s through systematic racism, police brutality, stereotypes, etc. Think about it… our ancestors were beaten for simply being Black and now we beat our children to “discipline” them when they get a bad grade, don’t follow a rule, or just act simply like children. Many of us don't have the resources for mental health recovery
and help, and because of that our children are affected and grow up to experience mental illness.
A lot of adults in the Black community believe that their children are showing signs of disobedience and behavioral issues when often it’s depression, PTSD and anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and many others. My father is a Black immigrant with bipolar disorder and never received the help he needed; because of that, I’ve experienced a huge absence. My Black immigrant mother also shows signs of mental illness because of her abusive father and her childhood; she’s never gotten resources. Not because they’re stubborn but because of health care differences in our community and many other things the system created against us, they’ve gone so long without help that they just believe they’re having a bad day, every day. Our family never had the freedom to say “hey let’s provide recovery with therapy for what they experienced growing up.”
When people in the Black community speak up about mental illness and ask for help, society refers to us as drug users and abusers. Instead of getting the full package with mental health recovery programs, therapists, etc we get put in hospitals where they abuse us and drug us so that they can release articles about how the statistics of Black drug users have gotten worse and how “Black on Black” crime has increased. Black people invented self-care and now we’re being deprived and stripped of it.
Black women have also been highly affected by the absence of mental health resources and awareness. For years people have told us that we're strong, while we are strong women sometimes we need help. White women are able to be looked at as strong while still asking for help with their mental health, while we’re told to keep being strong. So many Black women haven’t found out about their mental illness until their late 20s because growing up they were told that those things didn’t apply or exist within us, which is also why we sometimes have such a hard time admitting we need help because we're either not taken seriously because society views us as strong and unaware.
Essay #2
Mental Health Stigma
The stigma around mental health in the Black community results in the continuation of generational trauma and abuse. This is especially seen in how we interact with or respond to our kids. Parents often repeat cycles of abuse and mistreatment that began with their own childhood. This abuse can consist of yelling, hitting, emotional neglect, and degrading comments that are widely accepted within the Black community. This can leave lasting and harmful effects, more than most Black parents would like to admit. Rather than unpacking their traumatic experiences from childhood, they normalize the way their parents have treated them, leading to the repetition of toxic and damaging cycles.
Oftentimes this specific way of parenting can be so normalized within the family, that when others break the silence they are met with weird looks. In worse cases, they buckle under the pressure of being looked down upon by their family and the cycle continues. As a teenager myself, I only really began to notice this pattern when I took a step back and observed how each generation interacts with the next. After some time I realized that the issue lies in how we acknowledge our trauma and not letting others’ opinions cloud our judgment.
Once we accept it, we can finally start to break the cycle and stigma around mental health.
Essay #3
Why the Black Community needs to focus on Mental Health
I think the Black community needs to work on mental health because a lot of Black people/families ignore their feelings and don’t know how to express them leading to generations of Black people suppressing their feelings and not communicating with each other. I know a lot of Black people who view emotions as a weakness and think they shouldn’t be shown but doing that not only hurts them but hurts the people around them.
One thing I like to do for good mental health is to get some me time and do something I enjoy. I don’t just lock myself in a room and don’t tell anyone I want time for myself, I tell the people around me that I’m taking time for myself so they don’t think I’m ignoring them. I also try to communicate with some of the people I'm close to if I don’t like something someone has done to me I will try to tell them about it.
I still struggle with communication but I still try so I don’t feel worried and stress over what someone has done to me.
Resources
(compiled by Shy)
● The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation - https://borislhensonfoundation.or
Created by actress and activist Taraji P Henson who suffered from anxiety and depression, she was also raised by her father who suffered great mental illness due to being in the army during the Vietnam war. Not only does her foundation provide mental health awareness and help but she works with many other Black-owned organizations that give education and scholarships to black students pursuing careers in the mental health area like psychology and many others.
● Therapy For Black Girls - https://therapyforblackgirls.com
A platform/ community where both Black women and Black girls are able to talk through “sister circle”, and listen to podcasts hosted by Joy Harden Bradford regarding. mental health and its different illnesses, ways to cope, etc.
● Therapy In Color - https://www.therapyincolor.org
A platform that provides blogs, lists of therapists, and many other mental health resources created by psychotherapist Ashley Bryant.
YouTubers, Podcasts, & Influencers:
● Lalah Deliah (author) - https://www.vibratehigherdaily.com
● Alex Elle (Podcast: “Hey Girl”)https://www.alexelle.com
● Dora Kamu https://www.dorakamau.ca
● Dr. Jess https://www.askdrjess.com
● Lauren Ash https://www.blackgirlinom.com
● Jouelzy http://www.jouelzy.com
Ten Facts About Bebe Moore Campbell
Bebe Moore Campbell's daughter Maia Campbell battled with mental illness, however, the system full of racism and aggression prevented her daughter from getting the help and support she needed. Moore Campbell then founded NAMI-Inglewood in a predominantly Black neighborhood. NAMI-Inglewood created a safe space for the Black community to talk about their mental health concerns without being judged, or wronged by the system's racism.
Bebe Moore Campbell was the only Black woman in her dorm at the University of Pittsburgh where she later joined the Black Action Society graduating with her Bachelor of Science degree in elementary learning.
Bebe Moore Campbell's first debut novel “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine” was published in 1922. It’s about the Black Community’s reaction to the injustice, hate crime, and murder of a 15-year-old black boy because he spoke French around a white woman. This book was and still is award-winning and brought up the discussion of more racially motivated injustices and murders.
Bebe Moore Campbell met with congress in DC several times to discuss programs that supported the mental health of minorities. In 2008 July was designated as Bebe Moore National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month.
Bebe Moore Campbell has written 5 novels, 2 children’s books, 2 nonfiction books, and 9 articles and essays.
Bebe Moore Campbell's first book touching on mental health in the Black community was a children's book called “Sometimes My Mommy Gets Angry”. Which is about a young Black girl that lives with her mentally ill mom. During the time this book came out mental illness within our community wasn’t talked about or taken seriously, so this did a great amount of representation and education.
Bebe Moore Campbell grew up both in the North and South seeing as her dad lived in North Carolina and her mom lived in Philadelphia. She experienced firsthand the effects of racial segregation in our community throughout different generations.
Before NAMI-Inglewood, Bebe Moore Campbell met with a few friends and they called it “Sisters Support Group”. They’d speak about their family’s mental illnesses and ways to cope or help them, they’d even indulge in self-care like watching movies together, and praying together. This is what gave her the motivation to start NAMI. Whether it was 6 people or 600 people, she wanted to create a space for the Black community to speak about mental health.
NAMI-Inglewood started with 100 people, they’d run support groups, give courses, and speak at churches.
Sadly on November 27th, 2006 Bebe Moore Campbell passed away from brain cancer. But our community will still continue to celebrate and honor her by bringing awareness to mental illness in the black community not just during July but all year round. We recognize and appreciate how much she’s advocated for our community regarding racial injustice, the negative effects of stereotyping, the importance of mental health, and much more!
Ten Books about Mental Health written by Black women
Bipolar Faith by Monica A Coleman
Black Pain: It Just Looks Like We’re Not Hurting by Terrie M WilliamsBlack Women's Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability by Stephanie Y. Evans
It's Healing Time for the Body Mind of Black Womxn: How to Live a Life You Love and Love the Life You Live by Tien Sydnor-Campbell
Black Girls Don't Cry: Unveiling Our Pain and Unleashing Hope by Angelica Leigh
Not Alone: Reflections on Faith & Depression by Monica A. Coleman
Too Heavy A Yoke: Black Women and The Burden of Strength by Chanequa Walker-Barnes
The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health: Navigate an Unequal System, Learn Tools for Emotional Wellness, and Get the Help you Deserve by Rheeda Walker PhD
Same But Different by Holly Robinson Peete
The Mother of Black Hollywood/A Memoir by Jenifer Lewis
Black Fatigue: How Racism Erodes the Mind, Body, and Spirit by Mary-Frances Winters
Please leave us a kind word letting us know your thoughts!!
Have you read any of Bebe Moore Campbell’s books? Brothers and Sisters, 72 Hour Hold, Your Blues Aint Like Mine, Sweet Summer, etc, etc
What do you think of the concept of Minority Mental Health Month?
What resources do you think we need to add to our list?
What do you think of our compilation?
We will be creating another post for August with a different theme, so stay tuned.
This was very insightful. There was so much i learned about the literary icon Bebe Moore Campbell, and the resource list is a useful reference. I applaud all three contributors for their candor & vulnerability. Looking forward to next month.
I appreciate this read ❤️🩹