COVID-19 LOCKDOWN - 18 MONTHS ON

B L A C K - B R I G H T NEWS Vol. 66

s n w o d k c o l D I OV

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n o m 8 1

! n o r a ths ye

WHAT’S UP WITH OUR MENTAL HEALTH?

BLACKBRIGHT NEWS All Rights Reserved

ISSN No. 1751-1909

Blackbright News is a not-for-profit publication Myrna Loy, Founder & Chief Editor (Logo designed by Flo Awolaja).

Photos were not specified are free downloads from Google, except where supplied or otherwise specified.

Printed by Mixam (UK) Limited www.blackbrightcommunityservices.com (Visit www.issuu.com/blackbrightnews for previous editions) Donations cane be made via Paypal: blackbrightnews@gmail.com

Blackbright News recognises that we live in a world where we can be adversely influenced by what is going on around us or what is being said about us, which could distract us from nurturing our attributes and skills or pursuing our dreams and ambitions. Many of us allow media, peer/family pressure; political machinations, prejudice and bias to dictate who we would should become and how we should behave/react.

Blackbright News intends to redress the negative stereotype by changing perceptions that are incorrect, while at the same time motivating the disenfranchised, disadvantaged and demotivated. Destructive messages are being perpetuated in different forms, such that disenfranchised individuals could believe that they are unable to achieve or accomplish their goals. Blackbright News aims to remedy those misunderstandings in her quarterly publication by publishing information that is representative, relevant and inspiring.

Blackbright News is an empowerment tool that promotes a healthier mindset by sharing positive experiences; highlighting the benefits of education; motivations behind successful people and their lifestyle choices, so that the mis-educated or demotivated can make informed choices that are beneficial to them.

Assisted by Blackbright Community Services Limited, (which is an Out-of-Hours Social Enterprise that offers a Counselling & Advisory Service) individuals can receive information, counselling, mediation, advocacy, advice and outreach services (and in collaboration with The Inspirational Herbal Tea Kitchen (TIHTK) individuals can pass by for a casual chat, over a cup of tea to ease tensions, replenish, or can be signposted to a specialist/organisation who is more qualified to empower and assist.

Editorial

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Hello! I’m the Founder and Editor of Blackbright News and I wanted to share my thoughts about what has been happening over the last 18 months, while we have been living, coping and adapting to COVID lockdowns.

Covid restrictions eased 19 July 2021. This was the date when almost all legal restrictions on social contact was removed.

At the click of a finger, people were meant to return to normal and get on with their daily lives, forgetting the past 18 months of conditioning to stay away from people. People you did not know were the enemy! They may carry the virus; they could kill you! However, after 19 July, you could mingle with those people you had been warned against.

It is no wonder that there has been a rise in mental illness since lockdown lifted. People do not know whether they are coming or going. They are told it is not mandatory to

wear a mask, and then we are told that in order to protect ourselves and others, it is our social responsibility to wear a mask.

When you are out, and you are not wearing a mask – you could be perceived as not caring about others; and therefore become the ‘enemy’ – the person we should not speak to, or go near.

Not only have we had the lockdown to contend with, during which time, many lost jobs, families were stressed being locked in together for 24 hours 7 days a week, we had constant pummelling from the media about deaths, cases and the uncertainty of our future if....

Every reprieve was met with a condition.. you can travel, but you have to pay for PCR tests and possibly quarantine hotels if the country goes into the red while you are on vacation.

People’s minds just cannot relax – there is always something!

For black people, they are reminded of the Tuskegee experiment; they are reminded that they are not wanted; they are reminded of depopulation strategies; drones that target black people; biowarfare – they are kept in a constant mode of mental stagnation – not allowed to press forward. There are innuendos about the repercussion of not taking the vaccine, and of a third booster vaccine, even though the first two didn’t work. To compound the situation, legislation demands that those residents not born in the UK, who commit the minutest of crimes could be de-

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ported; young boys on the street can be racially profiled or worst stabbed to death. All of what is going on is designed to create stress – and what does stress do? It weakens the immune system.

Not only are we stressed about the above, but there is the wariness of will I catch COVID, if I do, will I die from it; should I have the vaccine – should I not have the vaccine?

Are the components of the vaccine designed to ignite problems 6-9 months later, so they are disassociated with the vaccine?

Videos are taken down that give you some information, but those that frighten the living daylights out of people, are allowed to be circulated. Why? My grand-daughter (front cover) committed suicide during lockdown – she decided to give up on life – a culmination of incidents were instrumental in her demise. She was 29 years old.

Young people are not taught to cope with stress, even if they have an endearing and supportive family – there are some gaps in a person’s life that cannot be closed by human intervention.

We can spend all day and all night thinking about probabilities; potential outcomes; strategies; theories; scapegoating; but what does that do for your health and your state of mind?

Are you able to change anything that is going on? If you are, then do it. If you are not, then accept it, or think differently about it – try not to dwell on it.

What are you doing at this moment? I assume you are reading this article. I have to also assume you have your eyesight to see what is on the page; fingers and the sense of touch to turn the pages; I assume you were able to access where this article is, so can I further assume that you have a sense of mobility.

Hopefully you have been able to have something to eat this morning, you have some kind of roof over your head and you are able to breathe the gift of life.

As long as we are alive, we have the opportunity to change our lifestyle, our surrounding and our experience. If we fall victim to our surroundings, things will not improve.

We need to take control over what we are in a position to take control of. Yes, all of these theories may be manifesting as we read or write, but conversely, they may not.

CHOOSE THE LIFE YOU WANT TO LIVE AND CHOOSE WISELY.

The Editor.

While more data is needed to adequately assess the effects of COVID-19 on brain health, there has been some correlation between an increase of mental illness, during lockdown and postlockdown.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, conerns about mental health and substance abuse has grown, especially among the LGBTQ+ community, including concerns about suicidal ideation. My granddaughter committed suicide (aged 29 yrs) on May 15, 2021. Two months later, COVID restrictions were lifted.

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SEVEN PHASES OF LOCKDOWN Phase one: first national lockdown

England was in national lockdown between late March and June 2020. Initially, all non-essential high street businesses were closed and people were ordered to stay home, permitted to leave for essential purposes only. Starting in May 2020, the laws were slowly relaxed. People were permitted to leave home for outdoor recreation from 13 May. On 1 June, the restriction on leaving home was replaced with a requirement to be home overnight, and people were permitted to meet outside with up to six people.

Phase two: minimal lockdown restrictions

Most lockdown restrictions were lifted on 4 July. Hos-

pitality businesses were permitted to reopen. New health and safety guidance on operating businesses “COVID securely” was published. Gatherings up to thirty people were legally permitted, although the Government was still recommending people avoid gatherings larger than six.

Phase three: re-imposing restrictions

On 14 September, England’s gathering restriction was tightened and people were once again prohibited from meeting more than six people socially. The new “rule of six” applied in both indoor and outdoor spaces.

Eleven days later, pubs, bars and restaurants were told they had to shut between 10pm and 6am.

During this period, a patchwork of local restrictions were imposed across England. On the 14 October, the Government rationalised local restrictions by introducing a “three tier system”. At first most of the country was placed in tier one, under similar restrictions to the previous national rules. As time went on, more of the country was placed in the higher two tiers.

Phase four: second national lockdown

On 5 November, national restrictions were reintroduced in England. During the second national lockdown non-essential high street businesses were closed and people were prohibited from meeting 9

those not in their support bubbles. People could leave home to meet one person from outside their support bubble (outdoors only).

Phase five: reintroducing a tier system

On 2 December, the tier system was reintroduced (with modifications). Restrictions on hospitality businesses were stricter and most locations were initially placed in tiers two and three. On 19 December, the Prime Minister announced that a new ‘tier four’ would be introduced following concerns about a rising number of coronavirus cases attributed to a new variant of the virus. The tier four rules were similar to those imposed during the second national lockdown. On 30 December, after the first tiering review under the new four tier system, around 75% of the country was placed under tier four restrictions.

Phase six: third national lockdown

Following concerns that the four-tier system was not containing the spread of the new variant of the virus, national restrictions were reintroduced for a third time on 6 January. The rules during the third lockdown were more like the rules in the first lockdown. People were once again told to “stay home”. Unlike during the second lockdown, leaving home for outdoor recreation was again banned. However, people could still form support bubbles (if eligible) and more gatherings were exempted from the gatherings ban (for example,

religious services and some small weddings were permitted).

Phase seven: the steps out of lockdown

On 8 March 2021, England began a phased exit out of lockdown. This consists of a four-step plan, forming part of the Government’s broader roadmap intended to “cautiously but irreversibly” ease lockdown restrictions. Instead of a return to the tier system, the Government confirmed that it planned to lift restrictions in all areas at the same time as the level of infection was “broadly similar” across England.

England moved to step two restrictions on the 12 April, which has seen the reopening of outdoor attractions and settings. Prior to this, as part of step one, children returned to schools and restrictions on gatherings were relaxed, with the rule of six reinstated (in outdoor settings only). Step three will be reached “no earlier than 17 May”.

Source: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/researchbriefings/cbp-9068/

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Docuseries Highlights Jamaican Expats Living Abroad in Over 52 Counties Xavier Murphy, founder of the Jamaicans.com platform, launched a unique new docuseries on YouTube and Facebook a year ago. The docuseries, “Jamaicans to the World,” features interviews with Jamaicans living around the globe.

The interviews are conducted by Murphy who is the host of the show.

“I have learned so much doing this interview docuseries with Jamaicans living abroad,” said Murphy. “I am amazed by the adventurous spirit of many of these Jamaicans who move to another country and make it their new home.”

The goal of “Jamaicans to the World” is to interview Jamaicans in every country of the world. Murphy has conducted 52 interviews to date, with more to come. Interviews have been conducted on the continents of Asia, Africa, Australia/Oceania, Europe, North America (Mexico), and South America.

“Jamaicans to the World” is an in-depth look at how Jamaicans have landed in countries around the globe, their personal journeys, and how they came to live in their adopted countries. The subjects speak openly and honestly about the people, opportunities, foods, climate, and customs in the countries they now call home, along with issues such as racism and how Jamaicans are viewed in different countries.

In the docuseries, Jamaicans offer tips for success, obstacles, and problems of living in a foreign country and share the things they miss most about Jamaica. Jamaican celebrities from Bob Marley to Usain Bolt have made an impact

around the world and have been embraced abroad. It’s common to hear and see evidence of Jamaica and those celebrities, which can color the view others have of the island nation.

Viewer Barbara Robinson had this to say about the series. “ I really love these interviews because I learned so much from watching them. Beautiful keep up the good work.”

The one-of-a-kind docuseries provides a unique perspective from Jamaicans living around the globe and opens a window into what life is like for them. The world is a very diverse place and that’s amply demonstrated in the new docuseries by the founder of Jamaicans.com. ========================= ABOUT JAMAICANS.COM The Jamaicans.com platform was founded by Jamaican Xavier Murphy in 1995. The platform showcases Jamaica, Jamaicans & the Caribbean. We provide authentic Jamaican recipes, helpful Jamaica travel information, news, informative articles. Our Facebook page features 2-3 FB Live show per day. The platform and its founders have won numerous awards. Jamaicans.com is the world’s leading platform on everything Jamaicans

Xavier Murphy - Jamaicans.com Founder (How to say “Xavier”) Jamaicans.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/onelovejamaica Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jamaicans/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/jamaicans_com Twitter: http://twitter.com/jamaicansdotcom 15

EBONY LIFE BOOKSHOP Ebony Life is an established independent book publishers and printers based in South London. Their book selection ranges from mainstream, African Caribbean themed word search and puzzle books to colouring books.

Ebony Life Bookshop will soon be launching a range of African Caribbean and bespoke jigsaw puzzles and gospel flavoured CDs. Tayo Idowu, Sales & Marketing Manager of Ebony Life Publishing, says: “Our reminiscence educational colouring and activity books explore the richness of everyday African and Caribbean life from its people, culture to traditions. They are suitable for adults, children, seniors and people with dementia.

They aim to provide carers, staff, family members etc with hours of fun recollections, stimulating and engaging conversations about the past, present and future whilst helping to improve the memory, creativity, eye and hand coordination and focus of the user.

Below are links to the sample pages of the colouring and Wordsearch puzzle books”.

Printed sample copies are available on request.

African and Caribbean Life - People, Traditions and Culture (Easy colouring pages) African and Caribbean Life - People, Traditions and Culture (Detailed colouring pages)

African Caribbean Wordsearch and Puzzle Book 60’s Britain, People, Fashion and Music 60s School Days to Holiday.

The 56-page A4 colouring books retail at £9.70 and the 120 page Wordsearch puzzle books at £4.70 with an introductory 10% discount on both b o o k s using promo code COL10 Bigger discounts for larger orders available. https://shop.ebonylife.co.uk/

Ebony Life is a divison of ELC Service.

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THE COUNTER TOP It was the end of March, and it was a Sunday. The church bells were ringing in the distance. My ex at the time remarked “In Reading, they used to have a Gospel Cafe, where people would go after church and have a chat about the service and make acquaintances”.

“What a brilliant idea (I responded) what a pity we don’t have something like that, in Luton!” I had a light bulb moment. Why couldn’t we have something like that in Luton? Not necessarily a gospel cafe, but somewhere where people could sit down, have a casual chat about any concerns, especially since COVID lockdown had restricted the community in so many ways, and given rise to mental issues.

I’m the type of person that once an idea gets into my head, I run with it. I do not do a SWOT analysis (i.e. the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a business) because that might put a spanner in the works, but I do a quick feasibility

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study. I asked myself - is there a need? The answer was a resounding Yes! I asked myself, is there a place where can people talk where there is no agenda? No trade-off? No catch? No long forms to fill? I couldn’t think of anywhere. People need to talk, and sometimes they don’t want to talk to friends and family – strange as it may sound, they might want to open up to strangers.

In a time of stress and low immune systems, Herbal teas and home-made herbal juices seemed to be the way to go. What better way to encourage people on a path to healing their minds and bodies?

There was no herbal tea shop in Luton, where people could sit down and drink a cup of herbal tea) so TIHTK would be the healthy alternative to the English cup of tea.

I had some savings I was prepared to invest; we creativity; enthusiasm, and the rest is history.

On the 15 May 2021, the same day I opened the shop, I heard about the death of my grand-daughter. My granddaughter died, the same day, TIHTK was born. TIHTK stands for The Inspirational Herbal Tea Kitchen. I left the shop to comfort my daughter – it was a very challenging time for my family.

I was trying to support my daughter through her grief; I had no-one to support me through my grief and I also didn’t want the ‘kitchen’ I had invested a lot of money in, to fail. I had already paid 3 19

months deposit in advance, on top of weekly rent for the few weeks it was being decorated; rates, telephone and electricity bills and I had also paid out for equipment and supplies, so despite my emotional situation, I needed to go into the shop and put on a brave face.

My ex had the responsibility of decorating the unit, but I was not happy with his economical way of doing things. However, as he was willing to decorate, I relinquished control.

When he called me to come and see what he had done, I was shocked. It looked so cheap and tacky.

I cried inside. I could hardly speak. To moan about his standard would make me look ungrateful - I was in a dilemma. I prayed a silent prayer.

“Oh God, you know my standard. I cannot open looking like this - Please intervene”. I let the prayer go out into the universe, I had believed in his ability to create something from nothing. I expected great things from him.

However, someone in the market intervened had told him not to spend much money, because we didn’t know how long we would have the unit for, so he spent the bare minimum and it showed.

He had mentioned before, that he would get a kitchen counter top, so when I saw the half inch thick top made out of white Formica shelving, my heart sunk! The same chip board material he had used for the shelves, he used it for the counter top.

It was wobbling, and it just looked so cheap. I said nothing because I didn’t want it to look as though I didn’t appreciate his efforts, but I knew he was capable of better. I was so disappointed.

I battled in my mind with the counter top. I told him he wasn’t strong enough, but it was obvious he was not prepared to buy a proper counter top, to give the unit a professional look. He was prepared to buy the fridge, a table and chairs, and did not intend to spend anything over the £300 he agreed as his total financial investment, so I had to accept that.

I started considering about buying a counter top myself, so I mentioned to him, that I was not happy with the counter top, and that I would buy a proper one. The shop needed to accurately represent our taste and standard.

He agreed to take me to B&Q, as he wanted more shelving – and on the ground, in the B&Q car park, abandoned in the rain, was a counter top. It was slightly warped from the rain, around the edges, but it was solid, the right size and in overall ‘good nick’. Once it was disinfected and washed, and installed it would look so much better than the existing framework. Tears of gratitude rolled down my eyes. “Thank you God – for answering my prayer”.

The counter top was very heavy - we picked it up, and put it in the car. I felt so happy. Finding that counter top, which happened to be the right size and in a neutral colour, told me that the shop was meant to manifest. Finding the counter top allowed 21

me abandon apprehensiveness and doubts about what I was doing, and who I was doing it with.

Coming out of COVID lockdown, it was difficult to be overly positive - every day we had been pounded with news of deaths, cases, restrictions, changes in legislation; vaccine passport and tentative proposals. It had become difficult to feel stable or secure.

When we got back to the unit, my ex installed the counter top. What a difference a decent counter top made to the unit.

After the counter top was installed, we arranged to have access to water, brought in supplies and equipment, and it soon looked welcoming. We then decorated the shelves with a variety of blends of teas, plants and ornaments – it was starting to look lovely.

I registered the shop with the local authority; got insurances in place; I took a Food Hygiene Course (we were awarded a 5 Rating); paid the rates invoice; secured an accountant and felt that all the preliminary stuff had been completed.

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As my ex had retired, he volunteered his time Monday to Thursday and I took over on Fridays and Saturdays. It was the perfect plan.

However, after a couple of months my ex started complaining that there he was bored, there wasn’t enough activity and he wanted to return to work.

I tried to encourage and motivate him to be patient, but he felt his time could be better spent doing a 9-5, where he could be paid.

We had all the resources we needed to make TIHTK a success, but without mutual belief and faith in TIHTK, it couldn’t work, and while I tried to motivate him, it simply wasn’t enough to elicit a commitment.

The crux came at the end of July 2021, when he told me he was bored in the shop; there were hardly any customers (even though we were making the rent) and he wanted to go back to work. I made an emotional plea and broke down in disappointment. I explained the pros and cons of starting a new business, and at one point he seemed convinced. I reassured him that I believed in him, but if he didn’t believe in himself or the shop, my reassurance was good for nowt.

He told me that he would negotiate hours with his new boss, but all I could see was the shop’s reputation going down the drain. I knew the importance of consistency and reliability in business. I had wanted a successful enterprise that involved a

couple. Too many black businesses were being run by woman; I wanted this business to be run by a black couple.

Three days later, he told me, he had an interview.

His decision was final. He was returning to work.

His decision confirmed that he wasn’t interested the shop, nor a committed to a future with me. It suddenly dawned of me how many months I had spent trying to encourage him, and this seemed to be the last straw. Besides, I had used up my emotion a few days before, I had no more effort left to give, life was too short. I decided I would run the shop by myself on limited hours.

I decided to end the relationship. I returned his door key, and the next day he returned mine, and two days later he returned the key to the shop, which finalised our separation. I would now offer stable days and times to customers.

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I am inspired daily with regard to the shop. I love to serve, I love to entertain, and I love to cook, so I can combine all the things I love.

I am not giving up my day job just yet, as I need to cover the rent for the shop plus expenses at home, but I do believe in what I am doing, and I also believe it will be a success.

Sometimes people come into your life, not to be there for a lifetime, but to point you in a certain direction. I had always wanted to serve, although I thought it would be in someone’s pub. I never thought I would be creating my own signature herbal teas and juices, or serving herbal tea and soup teas in my own unit in Luton. My ex facilitated that.

TIHTK is only open Fridays and Saturdays 11 – 5pm. I have created a new branding for the shop; new business cards, labels and flyers. I bought a trade mark, and registered TIHTK as intellectual property.

I have started buying fresh herbs for my signature teas. The launch of the Luton Tea, will be at the Wardown Museum & Art Gallery, New Bedford Road in Luton on 28 September 2021.

I took the first step and I have faith that follow up steps will manifest my vision, and the rest will follow.

I constantly hear a voice “... the people will come”

Loss helps you to be creative, it forces you to look at alternatives, and that is what the tea shop has done for me.

Loss of my grand-daughter; loss of a relationship forced me to be resilient and think of alternatives.

On Friday morning, I will be offering image counselling. On Friday afternoons, Game Therapy will be available - the Game will be Enochian Chess or regular chess. I intend to set up a Saturday afternoon Talkin Blues Forum, where people will register to talk about relationships, work situations and surviving the lockdown, and I will also offer bite-size counselling sessions over two mornings.

In collaborating with BBCS4Luton (Blackbright Community Services), participants will buy teas.

TIHTK , is creating special blends of tea for special events. For example TIHTK will be launching the Luton Tea on 28 September 2021, at Wardown Museum and Art Gallery.

I have invested £5,000 so far, and now I can work at providing a high quality signature service.

TIHTK for signature home-made teas – is my new story, and the Luton Tea is my first footprint.

TIHTK is located in Luton Indoor Market (inside the Arndale Centre) Luton LU1 2TA. It is only open on Fridays and Saturdays between 11am – 5pm.

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THE POLITICS OF BEING

In one way or another, subcultures have always been a precursor to the disaffected youths’ discontentment with an authoritative world surrounding them. The ‘Free Love and Flower Power Movement’ The‘ Avant Garde Jazz and Be-Bop Movement’. The ‘Rock and Roll Movement’ and the ‘Zairian ‘Sapeur Cults’ have all had a part to play in the vocalizing psychologically and physically of generations of youth, so it is no surprise that the phenomena of ‘Sagging’ has taken hold globally. I say phenomena though maybe on closer inspection, it appears that it is probably closer to a series of present-day Hip Hop music ideals exhausted in 2013.

To the uninitiated ‘Sagging’ is the act of wearing one’s trousers below the waist or in more pronounced cases- below the buttocks to expose the underwear. To many it is an elevated form of street kudos to be activated with pride. To others; a more openly interactive connection with fashionable status and to some still, a semiveiled alpha male ranking, though to understand fully this phenomena we must strip back the hype that surrounds ‘Sagging ‘ to reveal why this trend continues to envelope popular social mores, for this we must look more closely at a multi-million dollar Hip Hop industry controlled by a handful of astute yet unscrupulous businessmen concerned primarily with financial gain and the destructive indoctrination of impressionable young men.

To deconstruct the theory and practice behind these primary concerns is what will allow us to better understand the history of ‘Sagging’. Before the present-day structure of Hip Hop and Rap stars were even conceived, there emerged a concentration of elite minds, stockpiling wisdom and adroit moral instruction for the masses. The history of Rap [slang for –To discuss freely and at length] is interfused with the fundamental oral tradition of SubSaharan ‘Griot’s [village story tellers] accompanied by simple handmade instruments sharing stories of village life and events.

The regular broadcasting of these familial notices to music is

where the rudiments of present-day Rap music spring from, it is from here that the two opposing schools of thought upon the construction of an industry concerned only with material gain and the disruption of spiritual and emotional well being versus that of it being just a harmless trend have come into sharp polarization.

Shaping the ascendency of the influence of Hip Hop upon Rap. There are those in one camp that will argue that an oral art form fashioned in the belly of Sub-Saharan Africa, permeated by and infused with the advent and painful experience of slavery, and shaped by the resistance and rejection of human enslavement, deserve to maintain a platform that does not rot the consecrated and fundamental principles of the Sub-Saharan oral tradition. And then there are those that nonchalantly posit that subcultures have always existed and to a larger extent are borne out of a heightened awareness of ‘The Politics of Being’. This is where the act of ‘Sagging’ comes into sharp focus as in order for the industry to grow and maintain its seat of power; the young and impressionable have to be defined subliminally.

In this outline, the five major record companies that control the music scene [Sony, Universal,BMG,EMI, and Time Warner]. The prison industry and the political agenda are all frameworks for how the young and impressionable are shaped. From the words they use, the thoughts they formulate, the material ingested audibly and visually, appearance and conduct. ‘Sagging’ is a by-product of this deleterious outline. To many of my mature sisters and brothers that I have spoken to in the community upon the subject, the overriding theme is one of distaste for the trend and all of the negativity it creates around the young. Not surprisingly, most of the young people I have spoken to and (those bucking the trend out of their teens and twenties) view ‘Sagging’ as a sociably fashionable statement of intent.

Few entertained my researched synopsis on the alleged origins for ‘Sagging’, created by an over- zealous music industry using the 29

prison system to establish a form of dress and a type of conduct synonymous with the prostituting of one’s body and the mental enslavements of one’s mind rubber stamped by a politically pervasive campaign and sanctioned by a sinister Hip Hop lifestyle. So I guess that the real story here is that there is no real story to speak of. As one of my interviewees commented ‘I have kids and there is no way any one of them would leave the house in a state of undress, having said that I don’t know what they get up to when they leave the house but the onus is on me to educate them in a way that will make them want to carry themselves with dignity when they leave the house’

So maybe that is it. Maybe that is the final word on the issue. To a degree we all have a hand ultimately in how we contribute and shape the young and impressionable. As trends will always come and go and dictate just how much we lend ourselves or immerse ourselves into to the codes and conduct of the day ,though we should never forget the sanctity of who we really are as spiritual entities or the true politics of being.

Syandene.

How the Black man became schizophrenic

by Karen Franklin, Ph.D. Psychiatry, the DSM, and the Black Power movement Published on November 21, 2010 by Karen Franklin, Ph.D. in Witness National Guard detains African Americans during 1967 Detroit rebellion

Once upon a time, a strange thing happened at the Ionia State Hospital in Michigan: A diagnosis of schizophrenia exited the body of a white housewife, flew across the hospital, and landed on a young Black man from the housing projects of Detroit, burrowing into his body and stubbornly refusing to leave.

As you probably know, Black men in the United States (as well as in the United Kingdom) are disproportionately diagnosed with schizophrenia. But what you may not know is when this pattern emerged, or why.

Up until the 1950s, the overwhelming majority of those diagnosed with schizophrenia were white. They were the delicate or eccentric - poets, academics, middle-class women like Alice Wilson in Jonathan Metzl’s The Protest Psychosis, “driven to insanity by the dual pressures of housework and motherhood.”

Bottom of Form

Then, in the mid-1960s, the Long Hot Summers hit urban America.

Smoldering anger over racism and poverty erupted into rioting, fires, and harsh repression. In Detroit, a police raid on a party triggered an uprising that left 43 dead, 1,189 injured, and more than 7,000 arrested. Convinced that they would never win civil rights through sit-down strikes, a nascent Black Power movement became increasingly militant.

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A new diagnostic manual

Coincidentally, just as this urban unrest was reaching its zenith, the American Psychiatric Association was busy revising its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Published in 1968, the DSM-II was touted as a more objective and scientific document than its 1952 predecessor.

1970s Haldol ad depicting an angry Black militant in need of sedation

“However, the DSM-II was far from the objective, universal text that its authors envisioned,” writes Metzl, a psychiatry and women’s studies professor and director of the Culture, Health and Medicine Program at the University of Michigan. “In unintentional and unexpected ways, the manual’s diagnostic criteria - and the criteria for schizophrenia most centrally - reflected the social tensions of 1960s America. A diagnostic text meant to shift focus away from the specifics of culture instead became inexorably intertwined with the cultural politics, and above all the race politics, of a particular nation and a particular moment in time.”

The psychoanalytically imbued “schizophrenic reaction” of the DSM-I was an illness meriting pity and compassion rather than fear. In contrast, the DSM-II’s more biologically oriented schizophrenia was menacing and required containment. In particular, the language that described the paranoid subtype foregrounded “masculinized hostility, violence, and aggression,” implicitly pathologizing militant protest as mental illness.

Almost overnight, the previous class of schizophrenics at Ionia State Hospital was relabeled with depressive disorders. As the formerly schizophrenic exited the hospital en masse in the wake of the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963, their places were taken by a new class of schizophrenics - volatile young Black men from inner-city Detroit.

National Guard and 82nd Airborne troops occupy Detroit during Long Hot Summer of 1967

A mountain of archived charts from the defunct asylum at Ionia provided the raw material for The Protest Psychosis. In his four years of sifting through the treasure trove of data, Metzl found clear evidence of shifting racial and gender patterns in diagnosis.

Because the DSM-II was published in the days before computers, clerk typists simply used hatch marks (/) to mark out the old diagnoses, leaving them clearly legible alongside the new.

Randomly selecting a subset of charts of white women patients, Metzl found schizophrenic diagnoses crossed out, and replaced with labels such as Depressive Neurosis or Involitional Melancholia.

In contrast, the charts of African American men saw Psychopathic Personality crossed out to make way for the DSM-II’s schizophrenia, paranoid type.

Neither set of patients had undergone a sudden metamorphosis.

Their observable symptoms and behaviors, as documented by their chart notes, remained the same. The only thing that changed was the diagnostic manual.

Metzl does not point fingers or blame the individual psychiatrists of the asylum. They, too, were victims of time and place, just doing their job. Doing it, indeed, by the book.

Lessons learned, or lessons lost?

The lessons of Ionia can be applied to almost any diagnostic saga.

Today, the message - if we choose to listen — is especially profound. As Ethan Watters explores in Crazy Like Us, American psychiatry is sweeping the globe like a virus, importing PTSD to Sri Lanka and Western-style depression to Japan.

Big Pharma is responsible for much of this McDonald’s-like expansion. The pharmaceutical industry is far and away the most profitable business in the United States, and accounts for almost half 33

of the $650 billion-plus global market. In its quest to enlarge profits, this industry perpetually seeks to expand the range and scope of illness. As Christopher Lane describes in Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, this expansion is especially easy with psychiatric illnesses, because of their nebulous nature and subjective boundaries.

But Big Pharma did not revamp schizophrenia back in 1968. Nor were nefarious doctors consciously seeking to re-enslave a rebellious race. Like treatment providers today, psychiatrists undoubtedly saw themselves as helpers, even as they functioned as agents of social control, naturalizing today’s long-term containment and incapacitation of African American men.

Psychiatry, as Metzl points out, is inherently focused on the molecular. With their focus on matching individual symptoms to diagnostic codes, the psychiatrists who replaced one diagnosis with another were blind to how institutional racism shaped their choices. Nor did they reflect on their own internalization of the era’s cultural anxiety over menacing Black men, an anxiety that linked mental illness, protest, and criminality.

A focus on the micro-level blinds the actors to the larger forces at play, which construct the very frames governing observations and actions. Larger social and institutional forces rather than conscious intent on the part of individual actors typically drive bias, especially in the 21st century. This explains why “cultural competence” training programs are at best useless, and at worst reinforcing of stereotypes.

We are currently entering another period of diagnostic revision.

What I find fascinating is how earnestly the proponents of new and expanded psychiatric diagnoses believe that they are agents of progress, advancing better science as opposed to ideologically driven agendas. Mesmerized by their own brilliance, they wear

blinders that prevent them from seeing the larger cultural systems in which their ideas are embedded.

But science is never pure. There is no one objective truth. There are myriad ways to categorize and catalog. Bias is inherent in what is foregrounded and what, in turn, is neglected or ignored. Reification, in which hypothetical categories are transformed into tangible and real objects, keeps us from recognizing and naming the larger systems that dictate these choices.

Karen is a forensic psychologist in Illinois, USA

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