Media misrepresentation of mental health & illness towards minorities
The media is where many Americans get their views of mental illness and health, the representation of minorities within the media whom suffer from these ailments is sorely lacking. The areas in which it is covered, the terms depression, therapy or anti depressants are not mentioned in media that depicts minorities especially blacks in situations of mental illness. The subject is danced around, while the character struggles through when they really need to be going to therapy or addressing the psychological issues they have developed. The idea of the race of a person being depicted in mental health imagery and media does matter, as it creates a stigma that minorities or certain race simply do not suffer from these problems. i.e.’ That is some white people mess!’
When it comes to the concept of telling stories about mental health the imagery does matter more than many can understand. Recently even media curators are acknowledging this dilemma in the media, and are currently working on ways to not only incorporate more diverse imagery but also create less triggering images for mental illness. Mental health has long been ignored or stigmatized in the US now we are pushing more for self care, but there is not a very diverse representation of what self care is, nor the diverse people who need this care. Recent media has attempted to address the topic and biggest problem within the mental health stigma and it is that not enough blacks are seeking mental health who need it, but also there are not enough blacks working within the mental health care field.
The scene from the Netflix show ‘Grand Army’ which depicts the struggles of minorities within the specialized school system on NY, is a popular post on my tumblr. This scene portrays the real struggle of being black with mental illness as well as the perils of living as a black person in a short dialogue to answer how current programs geared towards blacks can improve their efforts.
The show ‘Grand Army’ on Netflix hit the nail on the head with a specific scene in which one of the main characters who has aspirations of becoming a psychologist goes to an interview for an internship. The facility which offers mental health programs to urban communities and takes pride in having black therapists and consolers on hand asks her what they feel they can do more. The speech that ensues tells the harrowing struggle of what it is like to be a black person in America with mental health issues. By simply using words the description of the cultural and societal pressure to hold in your emotions as a black person is thoroughly explained in a matter of one five minute scene.
While the media representation seems farfetched at first, many are probably confused about the distrust in the medial field as a reason for not seeking treatment, but there is a separate reason for lack of education. TRUST ME IT IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK!! I need to emphasis this because while lack of education is a factor it is not where the distrust comes from nor is it paranoia and conspiracy theories. Once upon a time segregation was legal, blacks were by law a less than and this gave the CDC a fine chance to study some diseases and how they develop in the bodies. Which brings us to the first stop on the road of distrust of blacks in to the medical field.
The Tuskegee experiment -1932–1972, was only halted when a government official outside the medical department got a wind of the tests and called ethical guidelines into question. Had this person not been a whistle blower would the experiments have continued until all 600 men were dead?
1932 was the most known example because the experiment lasted for 40yrs and greatly contributed to the field of research without consent of participants. The medical experiments on blacks didn’t just start in the 1930’s the most renowned case of blacks being used in the medical field without consent happened simultaneously in the 1950’s with Henrietta Lacks. When an African-American woman came in for treatment of cervical cancer the treatment was unsuccessful, and after the doctors kept some of her tumor cells. The cells provided a breakthrough in the field and led to interest being taken in her family for possible links to their genetics, the family was unaware of any of this at the time.
The cells that were taken from Lacks is still in use today and offered the greatest breakthrough to cancer research. Too bad the cells were obtain on unethicality terms without permission and further validate that doctors do not have the best interest of black patients in mind.
While the history behind the distrust in the medical field by blacks has strong historical roots there is also another side to it where it leads to the stigma behind mental health that prevents many from seeking treatment. The stigma is that of strong black people who do not have mental weaknesses and can endure through so much without complaint. There is this idea which exists within and about the black community that we are almost superhuman in our abilities leading many to not see us as needing protection.
Media does a great job and showing how invincible we are as people and rarely shows that a black person can have mental health challenges while still being a strong person. The concept of us having problems in which we joke off and say suck it up to, portrays to non-blacks as well as blacks that black people are not sufferers of mental health illnesses. This can lead to mass feelings of isolation amongst those in the black community suffering.
Bet you are now thinking of all the examples in media in which a black character has been portrayed as friendly yet with mental illness which is played down.
This issue with all of this is that it is literally killing us a community, whether it be through alcoholism, depression, the daily social beat down of just walking around. [I live in a predominantly white neighborhood that has always been this way with an exception of a Mexican community, walking on the block I live on I get stared at by each person I pass.] The media portrays blacks as not only being immune to mental illness but also able to take heavier beatings both physically and mentally, this can lead to greater adversity on the basis that ‘we can take it.’ We are less likely to be checked on, less likely to be taken seriously in moments of weakness and overall less likely to receive proper care when we do reach out for help.
