Yall remember that #YouGoodMan bullshit, when people started the fallacy that Black men don’t express their woes, pain, and sorrow. When they started talking about how Black people don’t acknowledge or talk about mental illness. #VictimBlaming
Then they found out that Black men been yelling out and expressing their emotions for decades, and that the reality was that the Society was ignoring us. They found out that we have been struggling to cope with mental illness provoked by oppression, Racism, and the theft of resources from our communities; and we’ve been demonized and criminalized for it by White Society.
The YouGoodMan shit actually was an attempt to put more blame and shem on the Black community instead on the Systems that drive us mad, and then deny us the mobility, resources, and institutions to treat the problems that the System provokes in our communities.
Then the whole YouGoodMan shit faded quicker than cheap lipstick on a back alley prostitute cuz people found out that asking a question wasn’t a cure and they didn’t want to do what really needed to be done to address Black mental health.
Oh, and if you really wanna know the remedy for Black mental illness read Frantz Fanon, Dr. Amos N. Wilson, Dr. Marimba Ani, Dr. Na’im Akbar, Bobby E. Wright, Dr. Wade B Nobles, Dr. Francis Cress Welsing; and the many other conscious, African Centered, Revolutionary mental health professionals, instead of jumping on bandwagons and Hashtag trains.
I hope this is remembered the next time we have some Celeb-Centric superficial movement pushed on the Hood. Let’s focus on real solutions to oppression and not be distracted by bullshit and opportunist.
(Note, I said all this when the movement was trending, but I’m finding it’s better to speak on this kinda shit when the dust has settled and the emotions have leveled off.)
