When music artist Kehlani posted photos of herself after her suicide attempt on Instagram, she was bombarded with backlash on the post itself as well as on Twitter and other social media outlets.
Some users, mainly those of her primarily black fan base, called her “selfish” and an “attention-seeker.” Singer Chris Brown tweeted that “there is no attempting suicide. Stop flexing for the gram.”
This aggression is the result of a stigmatized, biased understanding of mental health in the black community, which stands as one of the many causes for a heightened rate of suicide and suicide ideation among black teenage girls, according to Sean Joe, an expert on suicide in the African American community.
“The hardship black women have endured is almost intrinsic to the black American experience and has led women and girls to have to take on a role of ‘superwoman',” he said in a phone interview. “Though to be super resilient, we must realize we are human.”
Next month, Joe’s findings on the need for depression testing in all urban teens with psychological distress will be published in Children and Youth Services Review.
Nearly 7 percent of black teenage girls will attempt suicide before they turn 17, compared to 4 percent of black teens overall, according to 2009 research conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health.
More recently, in June, teen suicide rates overall were found to be rising fast, surpassing homicide as the second leading cause of death.
Against this backdrop, girls of color who hav
[For more of this story, written by Melanie Myers, go to http://womensenews.org/2016/08...some-girls-of-color/]
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