Black Men and Mental Health: A Symposium

The current parlous state of mental health within the Black male community in the US and UK requires our immediate, targeted attention.Millions of men suffer from depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders, yet men are far less likely than women to seek help. Men make up more than three-quarters of the annual deaths by suicide. From 2010 to 2020, Black people had the largest percentage increases of any ethnic group in their suicide death rates, putting Black males at particular risk. Of those, we believe the 60% increase over the past two decades in suicide rates among 10–19-year-old Black boys constitutes a national emergency.

Black males are uniquely vulnerable to mental health challenges due to a complex combination of factors, including systemic racism and related trauma, high poverty rates, and implicit bias on the part of medical providers. Many Black men face limited access to any kind of psychological and psychiatric services, let alone ones that are equipped to understand and meet our specific needs.

All this is exacerbated by deep stigma within our own community. When you’re born into a culture that rejects ‘fragility’ and promotes hypermasculinity, you are in danger of developing toxic attitudes and behaviors that can exacerbate issues like depression, anxiety, borderline personality disorder and substance abuse, leaving you even more isolated.

We aim to expose the crisis in Black male mental health and identify solutions, while providing a brave space for Black men to voice their experiences, access resources, and come together in fellowship, empathy, and love. We hope to create a call to action – it’s time to eradicate taboos, learn to look after ourselves and each other, and demand that Black men’s mental health be declared an urgent national policy priority.