Criminalization of Black Men in these united states has always had its concomitant ritual of pathologizing those same said men. From Sameul Cartwright’s drapetomania to modern era framing of schizophrenia as a “protest psychosis”, Black Men have had their mental health defined along a political axis.
During those long months after Ferguson gestapo slaughtered Mike Brown, I witnessed Black WOMEN coming together in activist spaces. In these spaces, they would forge self-health routines to address waning mental health due to confronting state violence on a daily and nightly basis. These routines would eventually be coopted by corporate interests, forming ad campaigns for spa days and yoga for not only these politically activate Women, but for any Woman that could afford these packages.
Over a course of half a decade, these mental health strategies would grow to become a response to address certain Black Masculinities. Of which, I have addressed, is DaBaby’s version, however, as Our friend has expressed, other HipHop artist have considered their own mental health and masculinity intersections with more than just lip service.
“I (saw) my first murder at nine years old. I was shot at 16 years old. Eighty percent of my friends, their mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers were hooked on drugs. I’ve seen 10 of my friends get murdered. My friends, just people from my neighborhood, we endure so much trauma on a day-to-day basis and it’s normalized. We don’t even grieve. We don’t even think twice about it.”
G Herbo, nee Herbert Randall Wright III, says of his Chicago upbringing. While media outlets, mainstream and just trollstreams, are prone to discuss Chicago as ‘Chiraq’ — a city plague by violence despite its democratic leadership, or possibly due to it — an anger worthy silence drones over Herb’s work.
It would be shortsighted of me to downplay poor person versus poor person violence that plagues all undernurtured communities throughout these united states, and especially in Chicago. Nonetheless, G Herbo has been sufficiently vocal about his program, Swervin’ Through Stress. Although many of these same channels that continue to only push narratives of “Chiraq”, G Herbo has determined to further his mission to connect Black young adults with therapeutic resources that help inform and improve their mental health in pursuit of a better quality of life.
According to G Herbo, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). As stated above, while Black WOMEN have a growing culture dedicated to Self-Health awareness and improvement, Black Men for various historical reasons do not in such magnitude. In fact, when asked about Black Men developing their “emotional intelligence”, over 62 Black WOMEN responded with suggestions related to therapy.
There are no institutions in these united states that any Black person should blindly trust. I believe that G Herbo accountability for his own mental health is a worthy reason to work with mental health authorities. Further, G Herbo is financing his own institutions of mental health awareness as well as associating it with his name, his public reputation. Socially responsible acts by young Black HipHop artists often go ignored by media; mainstream, social, and otherwise. His efforts should be amplified and duplicated.
Black men are not sick nor have an illness. Problem is most are raised by women to think like women. You don't see this with black men raised in rural areas or with father's in the home. Women tend to teach, when alone individual values compared to me who teach family values. There is a reason why plus 80 percent of divorces in black community filed by women. Don't see that rate in any other racial ethnic group.