Survivor Mode

Did you know that black people are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act than white people, and even more surprisingly, black men in particular, are more likely to have experienced a psychotic disorder in the last year than white men? According to the BAME and the UK Mental Health Organisation, these facts are deemed correct.

But the real question is, can therapy actually solve our worldly issues with discrimination?

Tough question.

Does one on one counseling have the ability to disintegrate the chain of prejudices and demolish any forms of racialism infused in the last decades, from the face of the earth? I highly recommend you don’t chew up these lies that society attempts to shove up our throats.

Ethnic minorities have developed poor self esteem from negative views poured out in the media, which has appeared incredibly detrimental to their image worldwide, as many white individuals who do not live alongside ethnic minorities often take their information from the media to formulate their personal opinions.

Deciding to take this theory for a spin, I conducted a series of qualitative research through releasing various questionnaires sent out to White-British students from a young demographic. Only 25% of participants believed that ethnic men are typically represented as ‘ruthless’ in the media. But, hold your breath...as 75% believed ethnic men are conventionally characterized as ‘criminals’, providing a socio-economic and cultural outlook on the way in which ethnic minorities are labeled in society, illustrating a justification of the theory broken down by a sociologist named Van Dijk who conducted contents of items that demonstrated how ethnic minorities were constantly being portrayed as criminals in the Media.

Goffman’s Labeling Theory establishes the correlation of the behavioral aspect of individuals based on how they are being stigmatized in society, which indicates the social impact of the uprising formation of crime from many ethnic communities as a model response to their negative portrayal in the media.

So, how can you expect these young men to live life with a stable mentality while constantly being compared to thugs, animals, and inexcusable thieves?

Vladimir Propp is a Russian structuralist who claims characters can be classified into certain roles in life that progress a story, creating the hero/villian aspect of how individuals are being portrayed for the media. And it’s clear to see that ethnic men have been portrayed as ‘the villians’ of society for decades, having a decreasing toll on their mental health.

So, why are you surprised to see them living out the prophecy that our ancestors neatly put in place for them decades ago? What did you expect, when they’re constantly being reminded of how ‘evil’ they apparently are?

How did you expect these ethnic minorities to react?

Books such as ‘Black Masculinities and Schooling’, written by Sociologist Tony Sewell, breaks down the concept of the cultural comfort zone, arguing that the African Caribbean male identity is focused on being hyper masculine and appearing ‘gangsta’ in the eyes of their peers.

This often reimburses for the lack of a father figure, their street identity being carved out by the media, turning to their friends as an attempt of conformity. The marketing of music also encourages young African Caribbean men to abandon their education and dwell in consumer culture.

But where are all the father figures? Many are locked away.

That's where they are. In prison, or abandoning their responsibility due to no previous father figure in their life. It’s a generational cycle, you see.

Well, no wonder African and Caribbean teenagers are known to achieve lower than average academic grades compared to their white pupils; they’ve got no fatherly image to think highly of, to copy or even just merely admire. Therefore, they’ve been forced to construct their identity by adopting particular values, desires and moral codes, usually by watching the behavior of their peers. It can also be extremely difficult to focus on your education, when the majority of educational content tends to be taught from a white point of view, with white representation from history and literature, continuously limiting cultural celebration to one month a year, while it appears to be white history month eleven months in the year.

So, what’s happened to our strong, overly confident, ethnic men?

Where have they gone?

They never existed, that’s why we can’t find them....

They’re non-existent.

In fact, the majority of ethnic men are normally found employed in low skilled jobs. But many of them detest this formation of fatalism.

Instead, being thrown into the poorest communities with minimal security and poverty-stricken housing properties, minorities are known for turning to criminal and fraudulent activities as a way of income. This is typically common among black teenagers, as young individuals are heavily influenced by consumerism and materialism culture, therefore shopping consistently from high end brands as an attempt to conform to the social expectations.

So, I ask you, are they really causing conflict or is it merely a cry for help, a search for conformity?

Having a focus group discussion with a young demographic of ethnic minorities, 80% of the participants agreed that males are responsible for the household, which may put pressure on poorer males from ethnic minorities to seek sources of income via criminal activities.

Have you ever wondered why UK black musicians refer to themselves as the ‘voice of the streets?’

The emotion behind musical sound itself enhances both realism and inspiration, as music represents itself as a form of art through its unique ability to interact with negative occurrences around our world.

Many ethnic minorities' use music as their form of therapy, their music taste, presumingly are made up of populist sounds of music, preferably with tones of strength; voices that are reclaiming their power with stylistic qualities.

Documentaries such as Death Row Chronicles by BET Networks break down the historical portrayal of N.W.A, which were a populist hip pop group whose members were among the earliest controversial figures of the rap subgenre, providing historical relevance to the emphasis of cultural politics and the mental state of young ethnic minorities. Active from 1987 to 1991, this rap group endured controversy due to their music appearing as a glorification of drugs and crime, their sound being banned from many mainstream radio stations.

Krept and Konan are a modern UK Jamaican music duo who represent the diverse and intellectual aspect of the rap scene, their single Seen it All using sound as a representation of racialism, lyrics such as ‘innocent families griefing and that, take the voice of the people seriously, need justice immediately’, providing an outlook on the revelation presented by black communities based on the discriminative formation of our UK government. This lyric speaks directly to the Housing System in the UK, and the Government's Immigration lawyers, reminding them that they are the reason behind the increase of hatred, depression and circling crime in the UK.

Their musical singles foreshadow the impactful component that the art of music can have in the world. Sociologist Best believes that rap music provides black men with a means to communicate pain regarding racism, police harassment and social depression and deprivation. However, in contrast to this, there’s a spurring argument that these genres celebrate violence, materialism and greed, providing a disruptive perception of black individuals.

There’s been an increase of black on black crime in many UK communities as a result of the discrimination and the poorer communities that black men are placed in, as lack of resources result in the emergence of criminal activities such as theft and the rise of a fraudulent lifestyle.

Formulating an ethnographic form of research with two young black helped to dissect an inch of reasoning regarding the increase of criminal activities between minorities.

‘Black men tend to turn on each other as an outline of conformity to our housing community or postcode. The system loves to turn their backs on people like us- ethnic minorities, I mean, ripping apart the family dynamic of many black homes entirely as a result of the criminal acts many of us feel forced to commit because of lack of money. With no father figure, many of us feel pressure to step up as the man of the house, doing whatever is necessary to support our family!’

Conducting an interview with an anonymous minority participant from an older demographic emerged a newfound discovery, that opposite racial types may provide a distinctive difference in response to therapy, as they stated, ‘Someone suggested one of my children was depressed- I disregarded the comment completely, believing that they didn’t know my child well enough to make such a comment. The following day, I went home and asked each of my children if they were depressed. They all denied it, so I closed the topic entirely and never brought it up again’

In contradiction to this, an informal conversation with Anwyn Kay, a young White-British participant reveals, ‘My mother has a positive response to therapy- she even helps me to search online for therapists. I believe that this is very common in white families, though. My mother doesn’t pretend to understand me at times when she doesn’t, but she’ll support my needs instead of assuming she can solve a situation she clearly can’t. I think that white people have more space to be in contact with their feelings than the black people I know’

Social Media page, African Archives is known for publicising notices, such as the recent suicidal death of Black Singer Songwriter Ian Alexander Jr, on the 21st of January 2022. Five days before his death, he tweeted that he was ‘Losing his mind’ which implies his mental state was poor, before taking his life.

How many more Alexander’s should lose their lives before the world starts to listen, before ethnic parents reject old traditions and take the mentality of their children seriously?

It’s not just, ‘the voice of the streets’.

It’s a cry for help…

When will the world start listening attentively to these cries?

When will you start paying attention to the voice of the streets?

When will you help break the code of the ethnic survivor mode?