Skip to main content

Protecting your mental



The parents of Black millennials and Black Gen Z’s are usually parents who apply traditional African culture to all aspects of the home. With tradition constantly being applied, the topics of mental health and perhaps more contemporary topics of discussion may be viewed as taboo and may not be given the same reception as more favourable topics like finding a husband or a good traditional girl.  

I think the narrative of hypersensitivity and the negative connotations which comes with it can sometimes blur the line of when someone is joking in retrospect to when they’re being disrespectful. We once lived in a time when it wasn’t deemed as derogatory to call homosexuals the f word, nor was it considered overly racist to do blackface on national television. The SJW’s of the world have rubbed people the wrong way which has led to Gen Z’s and millennials being labelled as the ‘snowflake generation’ and said generations not being able to ‘take a joke’. The reality of it is that we’ve been exposed to a lot more than our parents in terms of social media and we are a lot more hyperaware of what could potentially trigger someone and what is deemed more socially acceptable in comparison to other things.

That being said, traditional Black and Brown cultures can be viewed to not be familiar with what they might view as taboo topics e.g. Mental health, sexual assault, and much more. Traditional cultures in many ways don’t leave a lot of room for sensitivity, emotion, or even vulnerability, so when topics which are as sensitive as the aforementioned are brought up, the conversation has ended before it’s even started. Sometimes I feel like nobody is to blame for that because it’s not a reality our parents have been accustomed to and therefore there is a strong lack of understanding. However, I do feel like as a parent an attempt to try to understand and or compassion can go a long way.

Sometimes you just want to feel like someone is listening to you and sometimes your parents are the only ones you want to listen to you, but more time it’s easier said than done. From experience, I often find that older relatives from Black and Brown communities don’t understand what it is you’re ‘depressed’ about and or sometimes your mental illness comes across as you being ungrateful for the life that you have because of the way that they grew up in comparison, but those comparisons don’t do anything for anyone. I feel some aspects of traditional views of men and women haven’t changed in terms of the way men and women are held at different standards in terms of emotion. Men and boys are still expected to hold it down and more time holding it down means man up when shit gets tough but sometimes play your slow jams and cry if you need to.  

Please note this is more of a generalisation as opposed to a reflective representation and if anyone reading this is struggling, you are more than welcome to message me on Instagram, @linddube and or via this blogpost. If you don’t want to speak to me then there is a list of services which are displayed below:

Samaritans – 0845 790 9090

Anxiety UK – 03444 775 774

CALM – 0800 58 58 58

Men’s Health Forum – www.menshealthforum.org.uk

 

Don’t let anyone tell you how you to feel, and check on your bredrins.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BLM GON' NEED MORE PRESS

When Cardi B said, ‘bitches be pressed’, she wasn’t mf lying. Bitches be PRESSED, but bitches be pressed about the wrong things. Since the BLM has caught serious media attention, and the racists have been exposing themselves, I’ve noticed that people really don’t like it when they aren't met with silence. Everyday why is it race relations but did you check yourself before you wrecked yourself? Black lives really rattle people, inject iiiittttttttt !!!!    People don’t like it when you don't comply with ignorance. People don’t like talking about racism because man "dont see colour". People don’t like it when Black and Brown people are talking about the never-ending oppression that we’ve had to endure through no choice of our own because “we’re not our ancestors”. All this ignorance and complacency brings me to re-introduce the town I live in and the obtuseness it’s almost always escorted by. This town has a very prominent community page on Facebook which is mostly us...
Post a Comment
Read more

Identity

For the longest time, I’ve really struggled with my identity as a young Black woman. Having lived a predominant proportion of my life in a white, conservative area and not having been overly familiar with Black spaces until I went to uni, there were a lot of things which made me question who I was. My parents have always been very good at reminding me that I’m Black and Zimbabwean, but identity goes beyond those two factors. As much as I appreciate and love my white friends, there are a lot of things about being Black they will never understand, and particular topics of discussion which can sometimes only ever reach a certain point before they become redundant. As Black women, finding individual identity is something I think many of us have struggled with because at home its traditional roles aligned with African culture and at school/work it’s microaggressions that implicitly tell us we can’t be ourselves. Being told that you’re too loud, too confident and sometimes ‘too black’ are ...
Post a Comment
Read more
  With the season of wearing less and going out more fast approaching, I feel it’s important to acknowledge the ever-expanding beauty standard which I personally think does not need to exist. Why are we being held to a ‘standard’ which not even the people who have infiltrated them can meet? Take the Kardashians/Jenners for example. Some would say they’re the ‘blueprint’ (LOOL), or in other words they are what a lot of people aspire to look like. Small waist, slim legs, big butt, flat stomach blah blah blah. However, like many other people in the public eye, the Kardashians/Jenners also do not meet the 'standards' they are now infamous for. Khloe Kardashian released a statement not too long ago about having to be in the public eye and the pressure she has to deal with due to this, and also due to constantly being compared to her sisters and ultimately what that does for her self-esteem. Whilst I can empathise with her on feeling insecure in regard to her body etc, I think cele...
Post a Comment
Read more