“How would I live if God guaranteed my life was long?”

*TW: suicide, death ideation*

This is an extremely difficult topic. To read, study, analyze; to think and write about. I utilize the definitions of suicide and suicide attempt from the congressional report, Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America.

Suicide — a death caused by self-directed injurious behavior with any intent to die as a result of the behavior.

Suicide attempt — a non-fatal and potentially injurious behavior that an individual carries out with any intent to die. Injury may or may not result from a suicide attempt.

The primary reason I analyze the topic of suicide is due to the empirically-based fact that suicide is the fifth leading cause of death for African American youth age 10 to 14 years, and escalates to the third leading cause of death for African Americans age 15 to 24 years of age. This disturbing fact coupled with the finding that the suicide death rate among Black youth has been found to be increasing faster than any other race were the major indicators I needed to understand that the conditions and needs of Black children cannot go unacknowledged any further. What I mean by unacknowledged, both in this specific context of suicide and in the general sense of Black child development, is the fact that the literature on African American suicide, including youth suicide, is relatively sparse. Empirical investigations of suicide rarely include adequate samples of African Americans — as youth or as adults — to disaggregate ethnic group differences. I argue this empirical oversight contributes to the sociocultural understandings of suicide in particular, along with mental health in general. Some important statistics to retain:

• Black youth suicide rate rose from 2.55 per 100,000 in 2007 to 4.82 per 100,000 in 2017
• Black youth under 13 years old are two times more likely to die by suicide
• When comparing by sex, Black males, 5 to 11 years, are more likely to die by suicide compared to their White peers.

A critical source that empirically engages this issue is the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (a national school survey of adolescent health behaviors developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). According to this survey:

• suicide attempts rose by 73% between 1991–2017 for Black adolescents (boy and girls)
• injury by attempt rose by 122% for adolescent Black boys
• This would suggest that Black males are engaging in more lethal means when attempting suicide.

An important factor to consider is how social and cultural concepts such as language and family dynamics fail to constructively and healthily make room for the depressed or anxious Black child. You often see mainstream media and entertainment depicting this child being laughed at, humiliated, and ridiculed when they disclose feelings of depression or anxiety. It can certainly be argued then, that these portrayals of Black family life and Black child upbringing reinforce the unhealthy and dehumanizing notions around the mental health and conditions of Black children. Rheeda Walker, psychology professor at University of Houston, brilliantly writes how this dehumanization can be countered and Black adults can be there for Black children:

Caring adults are a child’s first line of defense. If a child discloses that he is thinking about dying, it is important to ask him to share more about his ideas and if he knows he might die. Parents and caregivers must be willing to sit, listen and try to fully understand what is most upsetting for a child who is experiencing a difficult situation and a lot of emotions. Thoughts of suicide do not mean that a child or teen needs to be hospitalized. It means they are in emotional pain and want the pain to end. Adults can investigate the problem and remove it or help the child deal with it. Suggesting to a child that she “get over it” is less than helpful. A child who is already in a vulnerable state cannot problem-solve without meaningful support from the caring adults in charge.

There is a critical distinction to be made when discussing dehumanization. Several researchers have argued in particular that dehumanization is distinct from prejudice because prejudice is a broad intergroup attitude whereas dehumanization is the route to moral exclusion, the denial of basic human protections to a group or group member. It is important not to confuse dehumanization with prejudice because although prejudice toward Black children might result in negative academic evaluations and social exclusion, dehumanization of Black children might conflict with perceptions of children as needing protection. In other words, children may be afforded fewer basic protections in contexts where they are dehumanized, making them vulnerable to harsh treatment usually reserved for adults. Dehumanization not only reduces the inhibitions against out-group violence but also decreases other basic human protections, specifically the affordance of innocence to children (in age, responsibility, and essence).

This dehumanization has been empirically proven when analyzing the perception of Black children, particularly Black male children. Black boys are seen as older and less innocent than their non-Black counterparts. In, The Essence of Innocence, several studies are conducted that highlight these perceptions of Black male childhood. From ages 0 –9, children were seen as equally innocent regardless of race. However, perceptions of innocence began to diverge at age 10. At this point, participants began to think of Black children as significantly less innocent than other children at every age group, beginning at the age of 10. Interestingly, after the age of 10, the perceived innocence of Black children is equal to or less than the perceived innocence of non-Black children in the next oldest cohort. In other words, the perceived innocence of Black children age 10 –13 was equivalent to that of non-Black children age 14 –17, and the perceived innocence of Black children age 14 –17 was equivalent to that of non-Black adults age 18 –21. Black boys are actually misperceived as older relative to peers of other races…These findings demonstrate that dehumanization of Blacks not only predicts racially disparate perceptions of Black boys but also predicts racially disparate police violence toward Black children in real-world settings. Our findings suggest that, although most children are allowed to be innocent until adulthood, Black children may be perceived as innocent only until deemed suspicious. Given these findings on the perceptions of Black, specifically male, childhood, perhaps our questions on topics such as mass incarceration, school discipline, and joblessness can be properly situated upon the understanding that the dehumanization of Black men starts when they are children.

The study of trauma will also prove critical to how we devise our comprehensive response to this crisis affecting our children. Trauma is disproportionately experienced in Black communities when compared with other communities, and traumas experienced are more likely to be severe. Research has long established the association of traumatic events and suicidal behavior in youth. When examining trauma and suicidal behaviors in Black youth, this relationship remains. We must center Black children and how their development is harmed or hindered as a result of experiencing trauma, indirectly or otherwise.

This is all related to the suicide crisis affecting Black children because it reflects the harsh, dehumanizing reality Black children live through daily. There are numerous social psychological theories that interrogate the complexity of suicide. Specifically, Joiner’s (2005) interpersonal–psychological theory of suicide asserts that one’s willingness to die (which evolves from absence of connection to a valued social group and sense of burdensomeness to others) is a necessary condition for suicide death. The desire to die emerges from experiences of diminished or thwarted belongingness whereby the at-risk individual is not an integral part of a valued group. This is critical to think about when we try to devise solutions that center that lived experiences of Black children. When thinking about this theory, some critical questions can be raised:

How can we, communally, reduce this “willingness to die”?

How can we reverse this “thwarted belongingness”?

What provokes the “absence of connection to a valued social group”?

It’s important that when we grapple with these critical questions we don’t pathologize any member of or group among our people and simply relegate them to being unsalvageable, “toxic”, or the “weakest links”. As Tommy J. Curry says, “No race of people has ever obtained liberation by labeling members of their group pathological and violent or giving credence to the ideations of their oppressors.”

Ultimately, there is work to be done in the area of studying and analyzing the conditions of Black children. This analysis is a contribution to that work.

LISTEN TO BLACK CHILDREN

LEARN FROM BLACK CHILDREN

LOVE BLACK CHILDREN

TEACH BLACK CHILDREN

PROTECT BLACK CHILDREN