The stigma is real: For students of color, discussing mental health can be difficult

By Raquel Alfaro & Lurene Heyl
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writers

Brianna Anderson, 23, is a sexual abuse survivor. The Towson University graduate has spent years coming to grips with her past. “It took some time to acknowledge that it was not my fault,” Anderson said. “It happened to me when I was around 9 or 10 years old, so mental health was seriously enforced with me.”

Frank conversations between family members about mental health can be difficult — as is seeking out professional help. This is especially true for members of the African-American community, as there often remains a stigma around discussing mental health. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, this stigma can lead people to forgo seeking professional help for conditions such as depression and anxiety and resort to self-medication or isolation.

“In my community, they just look down on those who are mentally ill,” Anderson said. “They think they’re crazy or they think that there’s no hope in the future for them. They kind of discard them.

“Being an African-American woman, it’s just really hard in general and in this community to acknowledge mental health and express you needing help for your mental sanity because usually in our community, no one wants to acknowledge that, nobody wants to think that’s real,” Anderson said. “They either suppress it with religion with saying, ‘go to church,’ or ‘get a job,’ or ‘you just need more exercise’ and sometimes, you really need someone to talk to.”

Anderson said she is a believer in God and takes her spirituality seriously. Yet she does not agree that it is a replacement for seeing a mental health professional.

        

And often times, those with mental health issues are dismissed. That was the case with Cydney Younger, 21, a Towson University student who was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in high school and experienced symptoms before that. Younger said she’s used to hearing comments such as “you’re not sad, you’re just being lazy.” 

         

Younger read articles on anxiety and depression, and found research that helped her better understand how she could improve her mental health. She said being involved in film and art therapy has helped improved her mental health the most. She has days during her art therapy sessions that all she does is draw or paint, which gives her mind a break from having anxious thoughts.

Younger said she didn’t find resources on campus that could help her with her mental health issues. And she said many others aren’t talking about such issues.

“I feel like I don’t hear enough on mental health on campus, especially for people of color because I don’t think I’ve really seen anything really and I think it would be very helpful to bring more awareness to it on campus or even diverse counselors,” Younger said.

According to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, African-Americans are 10 percent more likely to experience serious distress than others. They are also likelier to experience disparities like exclusion from health resources, which may contribute to worse mental health outcomes, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

G Wei Ng, who is the diversity coordinator with Diverse Minds Peer Education at Towson University, oversees diversity related and multicultural-related training. Diverse Minds, a peer education program affiliated with the Towson University Counseling Center, tries to increase awareness about the intersections of mental health and cultural identities. 

Ng said there is a stigma around mental health generally, and that stigma differs from culture to culture.

“As a person of color myself and growing up in an Asian culture, speaking generally, there is a lot of taboo about mental illnesses and also seeing seeking help as a sign of weakness,” Ng said.

“When someone has a mental illness, it almost feels as if it brings shame to the family so it’s not something to be talked about, it’s just hush-hush and not airing out dirty that laundry. So again, that sends a message to the person with those mental health conditions that, ‘there’s something flawed about me’ or ‘I’m causing this embarrassment and shame to my family,’ which can be very sad in seeing and think about what they’re dealing with and struggling with already.” 

Ng said sparking conversations about mental health on campus is very important. Some students who come from a culture where mental health is seen as unaccepted or non-existent can hold onto fear that they may be invalidated with what they are feeling. But their feelings are in fact valid and should be talked about, Ng said.

         

Listen to Sabrina Callahan, a peer educator in the Diverse Minds program, share her experience with the program.

Callahan said there remains a stigma about discussing mental health in the Hispanic/Latinx and Asian communities, among others. She hears a lot of phrases along the lines of “that doesn’t happen in my communities,” “I don’t know people like that,” or they don’t really understand the difference between mental health and mental illness.

“You have to try and push through that cultural barrier and explain that yes, this is happening, you do know people who have this, and it’s okay to seem ‘weak’ and to ask for help,” Callahan said.

Added Ng: “I think with marginalized cultures and communities, there are additional layers to that, especially within some specific communities because of the lack of awareness and perhaps some misleading information that may be taboo. Mental illness and mental health is not something that is often talked about, so there’s a lot of misconceptions out there, which then leads to the stigma around it. In addition to the stigma against mental illness, folks in the marginalized or minority communities may face additional barriers when it comes to mental health issues and seeking help.”

Anderson said she tries to explain to people she knows who might be struggling with mental health issues that they can speak up.

“You’re not alone,” Anderson said. “What’s going on through your head is what hundreds and hundreds of people are going through that same moment as you. Don’t be afraid to seek help, it’s okay.” 

Anderson said because of her mom reaching out and taking the initial steps to help her find a counselor and therapist, she is more confident with herself as an adult and appreciates the resources that she had taken to help with her mental health. She doesn’t have those problems that one may have from coming out of a traumatic experience from her childhood. 

“I still want to trust, I still want to love, I still want to care,” Anderson said. “Talking to that counselor as a young girl really helped me understand sexual abuse and actually be an advocate for it and expressing to women that, ‘hey, the signs are there and when you’re feeling a certain way because of it go out and get help’ — it happens more than you think.” 

      

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For students of color, microaggressions can loom large

By Melissa Gessner
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

Ask students of color if they’ve heard troubling comments directed at them that left an indelible mark, and you’ll likely find responses such as the following:

 “I was asked what sport I play when walking around campus during move-in day,” said DeAundre Bumpass, a graduate student at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy.

Added recent Towson alumna Saidat Sanwoola: “My family’s always saying ‘who’s going to marry you now? No one’s going to want someone who’s overtly opinionated.’”

Words can have a lasting effect. They have the power to motivate us and just as easily to bring us down. Sometimes, they may even reflect indirect, subtle or unintentional biases against members of a marginalized group — otherwise known as a microaggression.

Multiple studies have demonstrated how microaggressions, especially at predominately white institutions (PWIs) where minority students are underserved, negatively affect the mental health of students of color. One study from American Psychological Association looked into how PWIs generate more room for “racial stereotypes, negative assumptions of academic merit, social alienation, denial, and minimization of identity and racialized experiences in college.”­

Sanwoola, who graduated from Towson with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a minor in business administration, said microaggressions she faced on and off campus were harmful to her mental health. Some came when she was home with family on holiday breaks. Thanksgiving break 2018 was when Sanwoola spent a week visiting family. The trip was marred by comments she considered to be microaggressions that she still remembers.

“O le ṣe ounje” is what Sanwoola would often hear over Thanksgiving break, which translates to “you can’t cook any food” in Yoruba.

“[My family] always reminds me of my role as a Nigerian woman that cleaning and cooking should be second nature,” Sanwoola said. “And if you talk back, it just makes matters worse.”

Bumpass’s experience with microaggressions came during his first semester on campus at a PWI.

“While walking around, I encountered this woman who assumed I was on the basketball team and [asked] if I received an athletic scholarship,” said Bumpass. “I responded that I don’t play basketball, and am actually here because of an academic scholarship.”

Bumpass was taken aback in the moment, and he frequently hears assumptions — because of his height and race — that he plays sports.

“I’m used to sports-related comments, but this was the first time someone implied I made it to where I am academically because of an athletic-related reason, so I was slightly offended when I was asked this,” Bumpass said.

He figured the woman wasn’t intentionally trying to offend him, so he brushed it off. But the experience taught him a lesson about how to approach future conversations.

“I now like to talk about my academic accomplishments whenever I meet someone that implies anything about my athletic ability because I want to break down the stereotype that black students are student-athletes; a stereotype that diminishes our academic abilities,” Bumpass said. “I didn’t realize how it made me really feel until I learned more about micro-aggressions through a seminar I took the following semester.”

Added Bumpass: “While [this incident] did not have an impact on me mentally at the time, it did definitely make me more aware of how people may perceive me whenever I meet them for the first time.’’

Claire Cusack, a graduate assistant at Towson University’s Counseling Center, said it is important for colleges to diversify not only their student bodies but also their staff.

“On college campuses, when people have groups that reflect their identities, it makes them feel better, but it also predicts academic success,” Cusack. “When people have that sort of visibility and community, they’re more likely to thrive.”

Along with seminars, clubs and other on-campus organizations, community plays an essential role in building conversations among students regarding microaggressions.

Cusack said friends are an important first line of defense.

“Most likely college students are going to tell their friends before they tell their parents that they’re struggling,” Cusack said. “It starts at a peer level in college.”

Colleges have taken steps to help parents talk to their children about mental health. Morgan State University, for instance, not only includes resources for their students, but also a sidebar link with tips for parents to pick up on how their child is doing mentally, and how they can be part of their support system.

“In my experience, people in marginalized identities lack not only language around mental health issues, but also in accessing resources such as what questions to ask a therapist or how to navigate insurance companies, and what do these things mean,” Cusack said.

Sanwoola said students shouldn’t be afraid to reach out to mental health professionals for help.