Well, knock me over with a feather. I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked.<\/p>\n
Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n A solemn group stood in the shadow of the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, forming a circle on the snow-caked sidewalk. MarShawn McCarrel, 23, a well-known Black Lives Matter activist, had taken his own life on the statehouse steps. Now his friends had come together in his memory.<\/p>\n As evening turned to night last week, protest organizer Rashida Davidson, 25, recounted the personal toll of two years of activism: Trouble sleeping. Bouts of anxiety. Feelings of despair.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is really getting to us,\u201d Davidson said. \u201cAnd if MarShawn\u2019s death does not show that\u2026 I don\u2019t know what else we need to tell or show to say that this is really going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Since he died early last week, news of McCarrel\u2019s suicide has rocked the national police protest movement, forcing a round of introspection about a reality that predates the seminal 2014 shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Mo.: Some of the most prominent activists and organizers are battling not only the system, but depression.<\/p>\n In Oakland, Calif., a prominent activist posted the phone number for a suicide prevention hotline on her Facebook page. In Cleveland, a lead organizer confessed on Facebook that he, too, had tried to take his own life. Dozens of others have shared stories of their battles with depression, anxiety and insecurity on Twitter.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the movement you\u2019re just constantly engaging in black death, seeing the communal impact,\u201d said Jonathan Butler, the University of Missouri graduate student whose hunger strike last fall led to the resignation of the school\u2019s president. \u201cYou\u2019re being faced with the reality that I\u2019m more likely to be killed by the police, that I\u2019m being discriminated against. You start to see all of the micro-aggressions.\u201d<\/p>\n Like many prominent activists, Butler said he has long struggled with depression, beginning with the death of his grandfather in 2011. His involvement with the protest movement at times has worsened his mental health, he said, not only because of the emotional strain of a single-minded focus on racism, but also because of more mundane stresses, such as media scrutiny and infighting among allies.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many people glamorize the visibility that comes with being in these spotlights,\u201d Butler said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re not seeing the pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n …Studies have found that black Americans are more susceptible to depression and anxiety \u2014 a disparity that health experts believe stems from social stigma and a lack of access to mental health resources in black communities, as well as a reluctance to take advantage of those resources when they are available.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really tough in the black community because we\u2019re going uphill trying to fight all of these negative stereotypes about us, and the last thing a lot of black people want to do is give people one more reason to look down on us,\u201d said Monnica Williams, director of the Center for Mental Health Disparities at the University of Louisville. \u201cI think a lot of African Americans are walking around depressed, coping from day to day, and not really living.\u201d<\/p>\n A study by the federal Office of Minority Health found that African Americans are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. And for an activist, Williams said, depression can be especially dangerous. Much of the conversation about race and justice occurs online, where harsh and threatening messages are abundant…<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many folks in this movement that have serious mental health issues,\u201d said Alexis Templeton, who is among the most prominent organizers in St. Louis. \u201cThere are so many folks who are on the brink of killing themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n When she first joined the protests in 2014, Templeton was one of those people. A year earlier, she had been a passenger in a deadly car crash that killed her father, uncle and partner. Her guilt about surviving was often hard to bear, she said, and there were many days when she sat in her room with a loaded gun to her head.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, knock me over with a feather. I’m shocked, I tell you. Shocked. Washington Post: A solemn group stood in the shadow of the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, forming a circle on the snow-caked sidewalk. MarShawn McCarrel, 23, a well-known … Continue reading