California Black Media
Suicide Prevention Week: A Reminder of the Mental Health Crisis Confronting Black Californians
The conclusion of Suicide Prevention Week on Sept.16 served as a reminder, according to wellness advocates, of the ongoing mental health crisis faced by Black Californians. Between 2010 and 2019, Black Californians experienced a 31.1% increase in suicide deaths, according to the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.
By Aldon Thomas Stiles
California Black Media
The conclusion of Suicide Prevention Week on Sept.16 served as a reminder, according to wellness advocates, of the ongoing mental health crisis faced by Black Californians.
Between 2010 and 2019, Black Californians experienced a 31.1% increase in suicide deaths, according to the California Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that between 2019 and 2020, non-Hispanic white people experienced a decrease in suicide rates by 4.5% while the rate for non-Hispanic Black people increased by 4%.
For Black men, the numbers are more dire. Over the last two decades, the suicide rate for Black men has increased by nearly 60%, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Many of these suicides occur among people ages 10 to 24, prompting schools, colleges and universities to develop programs to reach out to young Black Californians dealing with mental health challenges.
The Claremont Colleges (TCC), a consortium of five private liberal arts colleges and two graduate schools located in Southern California, have implemented programs of their own.
“Across our campuses, we are continuously working to reduce or remove perceived barriers that may prevent people of color from getting services at a counseling center,” said TCC’s director of the Monsour Counseling and Psychological Services Center (MCAPS), Dr. Gary DeGroot.
DeGroot highlighted several internal obstacles, including a mistrust of treatment and therapy, a lack of confidence in the mental healthcare system’s ability to provide culturally competent care, and fear of stigma.
Dr. Adrienne Hilliard, senior staff psychologist at the Claremont Colleges, spoke about the stigma connected to treatment for mental health issues.
“I think as suicide and mental health stigma decreases, Black men are now more open to identify and report that they are in crisis and instead of silently suffering are now encouraged and willing to seek help,” said Hilliard.
She pointed to some external obstacles to seeking mental health treatment.
“Several institutional factors can contribute to the increase suicide rates for Black men: economic oppression, increased educational disparities, racism and racial trauma across all sectors, racial injustice witnessed with the recent increase in recorded murders of Black men by police and others, stigma surrounding manhood and mental illness,” said Hilliard.
Black Californians had the largest increase in firearm suicide rates since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study by Injury Epidemiology.
However, TCC has seen an increase in the number of students participating in their mental health programs.
“More resources, specifically for Black folks are becoming readily available,” said Hilliard. “So, statistically there may be greater representation.”
Hilliard pointed to programs like Therapy for Black Men, Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM), Black Mental Health Alliance, and The Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation.
DeGroot, who also works closely with the Office of Black Student Affairs (OBSA), stated that students respond positively to having access to Black therapists, connecting with Black organizations, and attending Black student events.
Hilliard spoke on the importance of a community-based approach to mental health care for Black students on their campuses.
“Although each campus has individual resources and services, we encourage a more community-oriented mindset when it comes to our students of color,” said Hilliard. “We understand that community is extremely important for Black students, so we maintain connections with faculty and staff across departments, such as counseling, student health, housing, etc., to ensure our students are supported on every front.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of May 8 – 14, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May May 8 – 14, 2024
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California Black Media
Cinco De Mayo: Five Interesting Facts You Should Know About the Popular Mexican American Holiday
To explore the historical significance of Cinco De Mayo, we step back to the origins of the commemoration, share how some Mexican American Californians regard it and trace how it has morphed into the celebrations we see today.
By Edward Henderson, California Black Media
To explore the historical significance of Cinco De Mayo, we step back to the origins of the commemoration, share how some Mexican American Californians regard it and trace how it has morphed into the celebrations we see today.
Celebrations in the United States began in 1862 in Columbia, California, a small town located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Tolumne County, according to that town’s website.
Today, millions of Americans celebrate Cinco De Mayo annually with 120 official celebrations organized across the United States.
This day has become a cultural point of pride for Mexican Americans and other Latino communities in the United States. It serves as a time to affirm and celebrate their cultures with other Americans of all backgrounds as they highlight their contributions to American history and society.
Joseph Soltero, a Mexican American living in Escondido, shared his perspective on Cinco de Mayo with California Black Media. He learned about Cinco De Mayo from his grandfather and talked about the extent to which his family and San Diego County community celebrate the holiday.
“We knew September 16 was really Mexican Independence Day, but kids in my school would always mistake Cinco De Mayo as our Independence Day. [Cinco De Mayo] is not really even a Mexican holiday,” said Soltero. “It’s something people do to have an excuse to buy drinks, have fun and spend a little money at taco shops.”
Like Soltero, many Mexican Americans (and other Latino Californians) do not take the support and solidarity they receive from people of other races on Cinco De Mayo for granted. They also appreciate when people take the time to learn about the cultural significance of the day and avoid some of the cultural tropes that can easily whisper undertones of racism.
To help raise your awareness about the origins and cultural significance of the day, here are 5 little known facts about Cinco De Mayo:
- Cinco De Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. It is the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla. This military victory on May 5, 1862, over the French forces of Napoleon III was hailed as a symbol for Mexican resistance to foreign influence.
- The holiday was not given much historical significance outside of Puebla, and it has not been celebrated on a large scale in Mexico. However, during the Civil War, Mexican Americans in California, Oregon and Nevada who supported the Union drew inspiration from the victory over the French-backed Confederate forces.
- The Chicano civil rights movement in the 1940s gave a new energy to celebration of the holiday in the United Sates as a symbol of national pride.
- In the 1980s and 1990s, beer companies’ marketing strategies targeted Mexican Americans by encouraging them to celebrate their heritage – and Cinco De Mayo –with Coronas, Bud Light, and Dos Equis. This created the perceived connection between Cinco De Mayo, alcohol, and merrymaking.
- Los Angeles hosts the largest Cinco De Mayo celebration in the country.
As we join Mexican American Californians to celebrate Cinco De Mayo next week, let’s deepen our cultural understanding.
Let’s use this occasion to commit to learning more about our neighbors, colleagues and friends of other races and ethnicities.
This resource is supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library in partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs as part of the Stop the Hate program. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to CA vs Hate.
Antonio Ray Harvey
Working Group: More Entry-Level Homes Could Help Solve Housing Crisis
The Community Housing Working Group hosted a briefing on April 23 at Cafeteria 15L in Sacramento. Discussions focused on how the housing crisis in California affects Black and Brown communities and explored ways to provide low-income families and individuals with affordable housing.
By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media
The Community Housing Working Group hosted a briefing on April 23 at Cafeteria 15L in Sacramento. Discussions focused on how the housing crisis in California affects Black and Brown communities and explored ways to provide low-income families and individuals with affordable housing.
Tia Boatman Patterson, CEO and President of the California Communities Reinvestment Corporation, said “entry-level housing” is not available as it was in the past, adding that affordable units were a major point of entry into homeownership for many families in the Black community.
“My mother bought her first house when I was in junior high. It was an 850-square foot, two-bedroom and one-bathroom house in 1978. That house cost $30,000,” Boatman-Patterson said.
“A woman working part-time at JCPenney was able to afford that house. We don’t build these types of housing now. We do not build entry-level homeownership,” she added.
The Community Housing Working Group is a collection of diverse community organizations from across California working together to address housing challenges in their communities. The organization believes that solving the affordable housing crisis will require creating enough smaller, lower-cost, multi-family homes located near jobs, transit, and good schools.
The briefing included a panel discussion titled, “Exclusionary Zoning: A Look Back and a Path Forward.” Boatman-Patterson participated in that session along with Henry “Hank” Levy, Treasurer-Tax Collector for Alameda County, and Noerena Limón, consultant, Unidos U.S., and Board Member of California Housing Finance Agency.
Boatman-Patterson, a former Associate Director for Housing, Treasury and Commerce in the Office of Management and Budget for the Biden Administration, started her presentation by highlighting how exclusionary single-family zoning is contributing to continued segregation of California communities.
She said that single-family zoning originated in the Bay Area city of Berkeley in 1916.
“By creating single-family zoning and having fenced-off communities, you were able to exclude the ‘others,’” Boatman-Patterson said. “It really was a method to exclude — what they called ‘economic segregation’ — but that was a guise for racial segregation. Single-family zoning, along with redlining, became a systemic approach to exclude based on affordability.”
Title VIII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1968 — commonly known as the Fair Housing Act of 1968 – is the U.S. federal legislation that protects individuals and families from discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. It was passed to open the doors to affordable housing.
In 1968, 65.9% of White families were homeowners, a rate that was 25% higher than the 41.1% of Black families that owned their homes, according to National Low-Income Housing Coalition. Today, those figures have hardly changed in the Black community, although White homeownership has increased five percentage points to 71.1%.
Boatman Patterson said the rate has not changed in Black and Brown communities because financing for affordable entry-level homes is almost nonexistent. The homeownership disparities contribute to the disturbing racial wealth gap in the nation, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition’s October 2018 report.
“We really must align the financing with the actual building of units, which we haven’t necessarily done. Because of this misalignment, I think we continue to see problems,” Boatman-Patterson said.
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