The stigma against mental health affecting Black people is something that isn’t addressed enough. Charlamagne Tha God continues to press to change that with a new state-of-the-art mental health service dedicated to the generational support of the Black community.
The nationally syndicated radio host has launched the Mental Wealth Alliance (MWA). The foundation aims to destigmatize mental health and accelerate far-reaching care using state-of-the-art mental health outreach and support nationally.
Hoping to raise $100 million over five years MWA will partner with Black-led organizations to address the plight of Black mental health by educating students, training Black research and clinical services providers, and providing free therapy to Black Americans.
For Charlamagne it’s personal. He has been long been an outspoken advocate on mental health. He opened up about his own journey to address trauma, anxiety, and depression in his 2018 book, Shook One, which followed his New York Times bestselling book Black Privilege.
“A strange thing happens when you start to tell your story,” says Charlamagne Tha God. “It encourages other people to tell theirs, and slowly but surely the stigma around mental health in the Black community starts to dissipate because folks learn that it’s ok to not be ok and more importantly seek help for not being ok. It was never in my plans to become a mental health advocate, but after I started discussing my journey, writing about it in my second book, Shook One, talking about therapy, and sharing life experiences with listeners, a lot of people reached out to me. I want to be a part of providing that help. That’s why I created MWA.”
Record exec Shanti Das’ non-profit, ‘Silence the Shame‘ partners with Jermaine Dupri, Kwamé, DJ Trauma and more to Raise Awareness about Mental Health.
As this country enters into her third month of quarantine, many people are suffering from isolation, fear, and depression. To be quite honest, professionals have noted that even before the pandemic, Americans were in a state of mental health crisis.
Charlamagne the God, a vocal advocate for mental health awareness in Black and Hip-Hop culture, adds that much of our distress is directly tied into social media — and our need to compare our failure and success with the other that appears on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. In his book Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me, he wrote: “Social media is training us to compare our lives, instead of appreciating everything we are.”
Charlamagne the God’s book, “Shook One: Anxiety Playing Tricks on Me”
And while the radio turned tv host seems to put a lot of stock in social media being a core trigger for social anxiety, and his work in creating awareness regarding mental health and wellness is to be applauded, other voices from the industry ring out to address whatUSA Todaycalls an “epidemic” within the “pandemic.”
Noted Music Executive, Philanthropist, and Mental Health Awareness Advocate Shanti Das has taken the microphone (usually reserved for the multi-platinum level artists that she has launched campaigns for) to create safe spaces for Gen Xers, Millennials and Gen Yers to unpack and unload the stigma of mental health in their lives.
Her organization, Silence the Shame, is a prophetic message to a world of smoke and mirrors of liberation. And since May is National Mental Health Awareness month, her mission is to reach as many with one message: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
By her early 20s, Shanti Das was one of the biggest players in the emerging Atlanta music scene. Working at LaFace afforded her a front seat to the rise of the living legend Toni Braxton, the CrazySexyCool of TLC, this generation’s most gifted entertainer Usher Raymond, ATLiens Outkast and The Goodie Mob. Platinum plaques lined the walls of her home and cash was ever-flowing in her bank accounts. Success looked good on her and the big city of New York eventually saw that.
Eventually, she moved to New York in the early 2000s and came face-to-face with the demon that is dressed up in glitz, glamour, panic, and anxiety: depression.
Depression in Hip-Hop
We hear a lot about depression in Hip-Hop from the artists’ perspective nowadays. We probably first heard rappers talk about depression in Melle Mel’s historic song, “The Message” that talks about the hopelessness of being poor, Black, and American. The same desperation can be heard in the Geto Boys song, “Mind Playing Tricks on Me.” While the entirety of the record is filled with the anxiety that poverty and toxic masculinity breeds, Scarface articulates it clear as day when he says, “I know the Lord is lookin’ at me, but yet and still it’s hard for me to feel happy. I often drift when I drive. Havin’ fatal thoughts of suicide. Bang and get it over with, and then I’m worry-free, but that’s bullsh*t. I got a little boy to look after and if I die, then my child’ll be a bastard.” Poignant and beautifully vulnerable the rap read in context can bring you to tear.
Logic brought tears to America’s eyes with his courageous performance of “1-800-273-8255,” (the song title is actually the National Suicide Prevention hotline) at the Video Music Awards in 2017. But that is just one example. Lately, Hip-Hop is an open diary to teens and young adults’ struggle with mental illness and health.
Counselor and psychotherapist, Laura Morse actually uses artists like Kendrick Lamar to speak to her male clients.
“Kendrick Lamar got my attention in 2012 when I first heard ‘Swimming Pools.’ Beyond the music is the attention to substance abuse, pushing limits and consequences. Kendrick took it a step further in ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ when he told the world: ‘I live with depression, anxiety AND I’m King Kendrick Lamar.’ The honesty of his struggles that accompany his success took my appreciation for him (and the POWER of Hip-Hop) to new heights. I began to see more Black men in my practice. Not just because their female significant others dragged them to couples therapy. And not only because they were struggling with substance use but because they were struggling with depression, anxiety, grief, vulnerability, and felt like it was safe to at least TRY to ask for help.”
She says that she even uses Beyoncé’s Lemonade suite to work with Black women.
Who can forget Kid Cudi checking himself into rehab, Kanye’s oftentimes uncheck bipolarity (mocked by so many), or Lil Wayne’s 2016 rhyme on Solange’s song “Mad” where he said that he tried to kill himself, but angry he was that he was not successful doing so? Juice WRLD, Mac Miller and so many of the 20-teen rappers that have self-medicated with pills have expressed the weight of depression in their music. Even Drake, probably one of the most celebrated and happiest rappers out, talks about his demons in his song, “Two Birds, One Song.”
“More time with family and friends, more life. More time to get it right. It’s only me but I’m seeing four shadows in the light My demons visit me every night”
But Dr. Steven Allwood, a licensed clinical psychologist and Director of Counseling Services at Morehouse College, while he appreciates these efforts … pushes back:
“There’s kind of a paradox in Hip-Hop as far as mental health goes. A lot of artists talk about depression and other mental health issues in their music. But outside of the music, they seem to bump up against traditional views of masculinity that discourages that kind of vulnerability. Very few seem to take the next step to actually get professional help. Kid Cudi and Eminem come to mind as two artists who have been very public about receiving mental health treatment, but so many seem stuck self-medicating with drugs. Or only get help when they get arrested and treatment is legally mandated. If you look at images of masculinity in the media, it’s very clear that anger is the only socially acceptable negative emotion for men to express. So a lot of times that’s how depression manifests. And it results in men entering the legal system when mental health treatment is what they really need.”
Art gives people outlets. Celebrity affords them fans who not only depends on them, but empathize, sympathize, and affirm them when they are vulnerable. Fans allow artists to have gaping holes in their mental health and say that it creates better art and forgive them whether or not they get help. It becomes great stuff to talk about.
But behind the cameras are those at the desks, who people don’t care or know. Those people who silently suffer — packaging your favorite rap stars so that you can still get a bop while they work through their struggles.
They suffer alone trying to keep up with the image of the sexy music or film executive.
Das’ friend, rising star Shakir Stewart comes to mind.
Usher Raymond, Shakir Stewart, Shanti Das, Big Jon Platt (Shanti Das personal pic from Instagram)
He signed Beyoncé, Rick Ross, Ciara, and Young Jeezy. A Morehouse graduate, who start college at 16 years old, had spent more than half of life sculpting a career that could make anyone shudder in envy or disbelief. At 34, after ascending to the head of Def Jam Records, the “27-hour workweek” that he often joked about became too much for him. The pressures that encapsulate power took a toll on him and he tragically took his life with a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2008.
Four years later, another mogul (only coincidentally Def Jam connected) Chris Lighty also committed suicide by shooting himself. Lighty was the power force behind acts like Tribe Called Quest, Mobb Deep, Foxy Brown, Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent and Fat Joe (to list a very select few).
Surprisingly, many still believe that they were murdered, asking rhetorically, “Why would they kill themselves? They had everything.”
The two of them may have suffered from what is called “highly functioning depression.” But because they took their lives, neither one was diagnosed.
But like them, Das is an example as to why the people close to execs of their caliber (at work and in their personal lives) don’t see signs of trouble in their lives. People in the industry wear masks. The pint-sized powerhouse did anyway … until the masks fell off. #MasksAlwaysFallOff
“As a marketing professional, my job was always to come in and fix others [campaigns, artists], but I could not fix myself.” She shared.
After living in New York City, Shanti began to break down in the big city. Her sister started to notice that she was not her normal self. Years of bereavement from her father’s death, the death of her best friend, and also some hereditary markers that made her more likely than others to have mental health challenges started to emerge. Her sister suggested she start therapy sessions. They made things a little more easy to cope with, but when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2009, that was just too much for her to cope with.
She walked away from her flourishing career at its height. She was in crisis and didn’t even know it.
She left New York to return back to Atlanta. The city was a happy place for her soul, filled with the type of industry affirmation that you can’t understand unless you are there. She began to move towards a degree of wellness, focusing on doing things that made her feel good and empowered.
By 2013, the same people that she had in the past help achieve some of their acclaim and glory had stopped answering her calls. And also, for the first time in a long time the money started getting short.
“My love language was always presents and gifts to family and friends … and not being able to provide like I had in the past added to my depression,” Das reveals. But when those things stopped, she felt as though she could not give anything of value to those whom in the past, she had always been able to bless.
Depression gave her mixed messages as to why people loved her.
At a certain point, she could not handle it and had considered taking her life like those that she had worked with, knew about, and/or loved had done over the immediate past few years (Best friend/Stewart/Lighty).
But thanks to a call, her sister and her pastor she is here today to tell her triumphant story of victory. She called the Suicide Prevention hotline and her pastor and he immediately ministered to her soul. But not just that, he too referred her to a clinician.
Rev. David Brawley, pastor of the St. Paul Community Baptist Church, comments on why referrals like this are important for preachers to make:
“[While] clergy are both front-line and essential in the conversation on mental health … [and] are called to speak to the unspeakable crisis of life,” he explains, “Most clergy receive a modicum of mental health training and at best can identify the need for clinical intervention. To attempt to treat people with mental illness and clinical depression without a license is to misrepresent the scope of pastoral duty and to potentially do harm to others.”
Mental health and illness can’t be prayed away in the church and is one of the things that keeps Black and brown people, who remain highly faith-fulled and religious, bond.
Victory after Silencing The Shame
She was able to shift from a space of depletion and sought out the help that would restore her, including working with a doctor to get the right antidepressants to regulate the balance of chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters that comes with depression and anxiety.
Shanti Das, Founder of Silence the Shame and advocate for Mental Health Awareness
Working with a therapist, she realized that as someone who had always been a resource from others that it was “hard to pour from an empty cup.” She had never truly dealt with her father’s suicide and other childhood trauma that had nothing to do with her work in the industry… but most certainly compounded everything.
She also learned a different love language: Community Service became my new love language. When you give of your time that is most valuable.”
And she has given from her heart her time, her resources and now her voice as a spokesperson with her “Silence the Shame” organization.
In 2015, one of her darkest years (but also the year of deliverance), after Bobbi Kristina had taken ill, she had interviewed with Atlanta radio personality, Ryan Cameron about the prevalence of depression in the African American community and she uttered, “In the African American community we don’t talk about it. We should just silence the shame, yes in the world but specifically in communities of color.”
That is where formalization of “Silence the Shame” was birthed, making it official in 2016. Four years later, the movement is giving birth to new spaces for people in the Hip-Hop community to turn especially now. With Silence the Shame, and from a personal place, she aims to support the 20 percent of Black people who are more to have serious psychological distress than then their white counterparts. She and her team will provide support for Black teens who are more likely to attempt suicide than white teenagers (8.3% v. 6.2%).
On May 5th, the organization will host its annual “Big Text-A-Thon,” a virtual fundraiser to increase programs, resources, scholarship funds for the foundation. This year is exciting as they are partnering with national DJs and artists to push forward the cause. Names like Kwame, Bryan Michael Cox, DJ Trauma, Dallas Austin, Stephen Grant Hill and many more to host virtual fundraisers on their IG Lives, wellness interviews with clinicians, webinars for the community at large, and much more from May 1st – May 10th. Long time friend Jermaine Dupri will do a virtual dance party called “Dance to Donate” on Tuesday, May 5th from 4 pm – 6 pm (EST). This year’s fundraiser is dedicated to the memory of her sister, the one that started her on her healing journey, who transitioned last year.
The goal is to raise one million in resources for the advancement of Silence the Shame organization.
When the world first heard about the novel Coronavirus, it was seemingly running rampant in mostly white and affluent communities, leading to the running but dangerous joke that Africans and African Americans are somehow immune–a joke that has now left many Black communities being hit hardest by the pandemic.
According to published reports, 70 percent of people who died from COVID-19 are black — even though the city’s population is just 30 percent black and in Milwaukee County, which is 27 percent black, the figure is 81 percent. Resulting in the largest disparity in modern history but how did this happen?
On Tuesday (Apr 7), during the Presidential briefing regarding the pandemic, Dr. Fauci addressed the disproportionate data noting that underlying health issues that are known to run rampant in the Black community like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity in addition to limited access to quality health care, plays a large role in the number of Black patients succumbing toCOVID-19.
“Unfortunately [the high mortality rate in African Americans] that’s not surprising and the reason is there is a health disparity as we call it,” Dr. Fauci said. “[The fact] that African Americans disproportionately suffer from diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and even some cancers like prostate cancer in African American men. One of the problems is that many of these conditions are the underlying conditions, which no matter what your race or ethnicity gives you a greater chance of getting a complication with coronavirus disease. So if you’re a white person like me and you have hypertension, you’re at high risk, but the chances of my having hypertension or diabetes are much less than the general African American population. And that’s the reason why they’re suffering disproportionately. They have the underlying conditions that seem to make coronavirus worse. In addition, often their access to good healthcare is not as good as the general population.”
Lack of adequate healthcare is a huge issue and very illegal, however, it’s reported that African Americans still face discrimination when going to non-Black physicians, including lower dosage for pain medication, the ignoring of pain indication and even being sent home despite having life-threatening issues by some urgent care facilities.
But just how widespread the disparities might be across the country is difficult to know, as NBC News points out, because most states and the federal government haven’t released demographic data on the race or ethnicity of people who’ve tested positive for the virus. That’s created an information gap that could aggravate existing health disparities, prevent cities and states from equitably distributing medical resources and potentially violate the law, advocates say.
“Civil rights laws prohibit federally funded health care providers from administering services in a discriminatory manner,” said Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which joined with medical professionals Monday to call for the immediate release of racial and ethnic data on coronavirus infections, testing, and deaths. “Our ability to fully understand and confront this pandemic requires and demands that we obtain racial data now.”
The death toll in African Americans is so alarming that Donald Trump noted that government officials are also looking into the underlying issues as well, before adding that national data on race and coronavirus cases should be available later this week.
“We want to find the reason to it,” Trump said.
In the meantime, Dr. Fauci states that although city, state and government officials can’t address the issues head-on at this time due to the pandemic, they have made a commitment to ensuring that Black communities receive quality healthcare to help those affected recover and get better.
“So we are very concerned about that. It is very sad. There is nothing we can do about it right now except to give them the best possible care to avoid complications,” Fauci said.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams also weighed in on the topic with his own personal experience noting that he himself suffers from hypertension, asthma and is a pre-diabetic, making him highly susceptible to contract the virus.
“I have high blood pressure … I have heart disease and spent a week in the (intensive care unit) due to a heart condition,” Adams said. “I actually have asthma and I’m pre-diabetic, and so I represent that legacy of growing up poor and black. I and many black Americans are at higher risk for COVID. It’s why we need everyone to do their part to slow the spread.”
While the world is figuring out how to cope with the impending changes to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, COVID-19, celebrities have taken to social media to show how they are coping with the downtime and who’s better to get advice from than the former First Lady Michelle Obama.
On Monday (Mar 23), Ellen Degeneres took to Instagram Live to help fans curb their boredom from being isolated, by calling on her friend Michelle Obama to share tips on what the Obama family is doing during the time of social distancing. Degeneres, whose show has suspended production until the end of the month for the safety of her staff and others, rang up the former FLOTUS for a five-minute catch-up to pass the time.
“We’re just trying to structure our days. Everybody’s home, the girls are back because colleges are now online. They’re off in their respective rooms doing their online classes. I think Barack is, I don’t know where he is. He was on the phone on a conference call,” Mrs. Obama said. “We’re just trying to keep a routine going, but we’ve also got a little Netflix and chillin’ happening.”
Though times are tough — Obama highlighted those who need and will need help as the pandemic unfolds — she also gave her take on how to find silver linings where possible.
“On the positive side, I know for us, it’s forced us to continue to sit down with each other, have real conversations, really ask questions and figure out how to keep ourselves occupied without just TV or computers,” Mrs. Obama continued. “It’s a good exercise in reminding us that we just don’t need a lot of the stuff that we have. When times are bad, having each other, having your health, we can do with a lot less, and I think that’s an important lesson that I want my kids to understand—be grateful for what you have and be ready to share it when the time comes. Now we’re just happy that we’re together. That everybody is healthy and safe.”
In addition to her words of wisdom during the impromptu interview, Michelle Obama also posted some tips on her own Instagram on how to lend a hand during this time of need as well all fight to combat the spread of the Coronavirus at home.
Gwyneth Paltrow and her curated lifestyle website/podcast “Goop” is known for providing quality products for those with elegant taste, but her latest episode with special guest Jhené Aiko takes a different approach to healthy living.
At a time when everyone is practicing social distancing to avoid spreading the contagious virus, COVID-19, Paltrow and Aiko get real with fans about how the pandemic is effecting them mentally while sharing tips with how anyone dealing with stress and mental setbacks can try to overcome it—if even for one day.
“We don’t deal with grief enough,” Jhené Aiko said during the interview. “It’s kinda inevitable, so we have to embrace it and know that our time here together is not guaranteed and we really need to learn live in the moment and love each other more.”
Aiko, who overcame her own personal trauma, revealed how using sound healing—specifically, singing bowls—have aided in her grieving process; before noting how we can find different ways to make space for our emotions and move through trauma.
”Meditation has always been a part of my life since I was little, so it’s always been a part of my life,” Aiko continued. “I love being around water, because of where I grew up but I am also a sun goddess. I love being outside in the sun, although my dermatologist hates it. (Laughs) But when I’m in the sun, it make me so happy because outside of getting vitamin D, I feel like vital information and ideas are being downloaded when I’m under the rays. Honestly, that’s how I came up with a few concepts for my album.”
In addition to sharing her mental heath tips, the “P*ssy Fairy”songstress also shared a new song from her new album, Chilombo, and shared why this is her most persona project to date.
“I’ve always been a little wild,” Aiko said. “So when I was creating the album, I wanted to make sure that I was unapologetic and unafraid to express all parts of myself—confidence, grace, a peacefulness, and a wildness, too.”
Too much of anything is bad for you and that includes video games. There is no denying how popular Fortnite is right now in the world but for some young gamers, the free-to-play game is landing them in video game rehab.
Fortnite addiction is becoming a growing issue, and some parents are finding out it’s a battle they are losing off the rip. Gadget 360 did an eye-opening report highlighting one parent, Debbie Vitany and her fight to wean her 17-year-old son Carson off the addictive game which he spends up to 12 hours a day playing.
In an interview, Vitany explains in detail how difficult breaking her sons Fortnite habit is “We’d made some progress in getting him to cut down his Fortnite hours and get better sleep, but he’s slipped back into his old habits. I’ve never seen a game that has such control over kids’ minds.” Vitany is not alone, herself, other parents teachers and bosses are complaining about the game’s grip it has on its players.
Lorrine Marer, a British behavioral specialist, likens Fortnite’s addictiveness to using drugs saying “this game is like heroin. Once you are hooked, it’s hard to get unhooked.” The seriousness of video-game addiction is apparent due to the surge in parents seeking counseling to help their kids.
Fortnite addiction is not just affecting children though, professional athletes are also feeling the burn. Boston Red Sox pitcher David Price’s love for the game could be the reason behind his wrist injury that sidelined him from making a start against the New York Yankees. NHL franchise The Vancouver Canucks banned Fornite playing while on the road because they had trouble getting players to meetings and dinners.
As a gamer, I’ve spent many hours playing a game, but this is on another level. It looks like the World Health Organization listing “gaming disorder” as a disease for the first time back in June was the right move. Hopefully Epic realizes the seriousness of the problems its game is causing and addresses the issue.
#dirtysouth #weDF #LaFace @dungeon_family #ATL #Shoestring #Unsung
a 
Virus and Sometimes Symptoms are undetected, People ARE Passing 
#STAYatHOME 
For decades on decades black and brown people have BEEN surviving the “temporary adjustments” most of y’all can’t handle for a few weeks. Most don’t have the LUXURY of stocking up on necessities and having enough room to social distance at home. Our AMAZING RESILIENCE is an unfortunate NECESSITY
#TeamDL #andthatsthetruthruth
be well everyone 
