The experience of being Black in America can vary tremendously but a common shared experience is facing racism and discrimination that can significantly affect a person’s mental health. Being treated or perceived as “less than” because of the color of your skin can be traumatic.
The Black community in recent years has embraced the idea of supporting well-being, resiliency, and healing. According to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, Black adults in the U.S. are more likely than white adults to report persistent symptoms of emotional distress such as sadness, hopelessness and feeling like everything is an effort. Black adults living below the poverty line are more than twice as likely to report serious psychological distress than those with more financial security.
The access for mental health is scarce and only one in three Black adults who need mental health care receive it. There are many factors preventing Black people from getting the help that they need.
Socioeconomic factors make treatment options less available. In 2018, 11.5% of Black adults in the U.S. had no form of health insurance. According to the American Psychiatric Association, the Black community, like other communities of color, are more likely to experience socioeconomic disparities such as exclusion from health, educational, social and economic resources. This imbalance may contribute to worse mental health outcomes.Negative attitudes and beliefs towards people who live with mental health conditions is pervasive within the U.S. and can be particularly strong within the Black community. One study showed that 63% of Black people believe that a mental health condition is a sign of personal weakness. The after effect is that people may experience shame about having a mental illness and worry that they may be discriminated against due to their condition.
For many in the Black community, it can be extremely challenging to discuss the topic of mental health due to a concern about how they may be perceived by others. This fear could prevent people from seeking mental health care when they really need it.
Even Black male athletes experience mental issues even with their celebrity status. In 2018, San Antonio Spurs star, DeMar Derozan, detailed his struggles with depression and anxiety. DeRozan spoke with the The Toronto Star while he was playing for the Toronto Raptors about his struggles with depression and anxiety and the importance of addressing mental health issues, explaining that “we’re all human, at the end of the day.”
“It’s not nothing I’m against or ashamed of,” DeRozan told the newspaper. “Now, at my age, I understand how many people go through it. Even if it’s just somebody can look at it like, ‘He goes through it and he’s still out there being successful and doing this,’ I’m OK with that.”
He describes his upbringing and how he dealt with moments of depression since he was a child in Compton, Calif., citing those ongoing issues as one of the reasons why he may appear quiet and “in my own personal space.”
He also said he doesn’t drink alcohol in part because of how he’s seen some his peers use various substances as a means of coping with mental health issues. He said he’s seen friends become drug addicts and some people “drinking their life away.”
“It’s one of them things that no matter how indestructible we look like we are, we’re all human at the end of the day,” DeRozan toldThe Toronto Star. “We all got feelings. … (Sometimes) it gets the best of you, where times everything in the whole world’s on top of you.”
DeMar’s truth made waves throughout the league as his openness was appreciated his openness. The NBA in 2018 released a PSA featuring DeMar DeRozan and Cleveland Cavaliers star, Kevin Love, who also suffers from anxiety, to let the world know about their mental health struggles and encouraging people to ask for help.
“He changed a billion-dollar business,” Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet told SportsNets Canada in 2020 about his former teammate. “He changed it pretty much single-handedly [by] speaking out. And then obviously a lot of guys felt more comfortable, and that’s what it’s about. So, for him to do that was huge and we won’t know the impact, we’ll never know the impact, but we just know that it’s a great impact that he had on the league and on guys, on players, coaching staff, whoever — that this is DeMar DeRozan and he goes through [expletive] like everybody else.
“I think that was big for him,” VanVleet said. “It took a lot of guts and a lot of heart to do that, and it’s something that helped me in my personal life — feeling comfortable about some of those things — and it opened my eyes to things I was ignorant about. And I think it was special for him to do that.”
