Comments on Racial and Class Discourse from an Ivory Tower in Connecticut: Reclaiming Black Men’s Mental Health

I didn't know that it's a common illness i...

2011-07-14T00:50:22.136-04:00

I didn't know that it's a common illness in the black community. Thanks a lot for that information.

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I think your completely right. In so many cultures...

2009-08-08T19:46:48.130-04:00

I think your completely right. In so many cultures, from a young age you're encouraged to be tough and suppress negative emotion.
I don't know much the black culture, though I wish I did, for I adore it.
I would love to be black, the skin is so beauitful. And the dark features are just amazing. White people pale in comparison. {no pun intended]
Such a sad thing, to have lost Michael. Though its also sad that we really lost him years ago.. we he lost himself.

The concern for the psychological impact of hostil...

2009-07-07T15:42:42.382-04:00

The concern for the psychological impact of hostile social elements on men who are black has been likened (in my field) to a war on their psyches. The impact of the stress and suffering crosses the mind body continuum and leads to physical health struggles as well. I mention this since it (current) appears that Michael Jackson used his cocoon (as per M. Robinson), to protect himself from an "infecting world". Thus his sad and untimely passing is now attributed to those psychology issues played out in the socially (and self)acceptable forum of physical health and wellbeing...medicine....so much medicine that it may have killed him. A bitter irony.

PJ Alderette

I think you are right about the mental health part...

2009-07-07T11:18:45.019-04:00

I think you are right about the mental health part of this being left out. On one side, you have fans saying 'remember MJ for all of the great things he's done,' and folks like Pete King calling him a 'pervert' and a 'low-life.' I imagine that MJ - despite the public adulation and his hermetically-sealed life - was still prey to the racial stereotypes and personal insecurities that you mention in your post. In this sense, his fortune probably hurt him because it allowed him to buy a cocoon rather than find a way to face his issues with family and friends.

The analysis of black male psychological health reminds me of the first season of "In Treatment" on HBO. One of the patients is a successful black military pilot named Alex. Over the course of the season, you see how a combination of social and family dynamics bring Alex to the brink. It's an excellent show if you get a chance to see it - and expresses in drama some of the points Xanthos found in her study.