Black Men's Affirmation

Black History Month a Time to Learn Lessons and Persist

 "Historically regarding the struggle against racist oppression, persistence and endurance have been keys to Black freedom and progress; these two key character traits produce the ‘twin resiliency strengths’ of willpower and overcoming.” - KenRaySun

"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." - Maya Angelou

Black men living under institutional racism in America from 1619 to 2025 we have been systematically set-up for failures. Unfortunately, too many of us fall for the racist self-defeating traps and accept failing 'lay-down and stay-down’. 

In contrast, we have to stay-up and persist; be inspired and keep on keeping on, yeah we got to keep on pushing, improving, and elevating!!! We got to study our forefathers and like them we got to learn lessons of how to make a way out of no way!

Mental Health Crisis is Increasing For Too Many Black Males

“Amid a mental health crisis affecting both younger and adult Black males, the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research held a daylong symposium on May 13 to have critical conversations untangling the complexities of the problem and examining potential solutions. According to the National Institute of Minority Health and Health disparities, Black men are 4 times likelier to die by suicide than Black women. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry has seen a 60 percent rise in suicide rates among Black boys over the past two decades.” - Nikki Rojas

“Historically, Black men are taught that mental health issues are “white people’s problems” and that Black men do not need to concern themselves with mental health. Simultaneously, many Black faith communities have taught that mental health issues are the result of a lack of faith, and if one just “trusts in God” all mental health problems will disappear. Thus, a dangerous silence exists in the Black community that is devastating Black men. It is time to break the silence!” - Rev. C.W. Dawson Jr.

"The history of slavery and systematic oppression of African Americans has negatively impacted mental well-being and plays a significant role in seeking help. Historical roots deeply anchor African American skepticism toward medical and mental health treatment, dating back to slavery in 1619 (Poussaint & Alexander, 2001). Between 20 to 30 million Africans were captured and forcibly brought into chattel slavery, recognized as one of the most insidious forms of mental and physical torment (Ramos, 2014). This period marked the onset of the cruelest racial oppression endured by African Americans, involving degradation, starvation, whipping, beating, lynching, rape, separation from family, and other atrocities inflicted by the white majority. This systematic abuse aimed to psychologically dehumanize African Americans, strategically diminishing their status to that of an object and stripping away any sense of humanity. This points to intergenerational trauma that has shaped the mental health of African American men. According to Brooks and Hopkins (2017), using data from the Summary Health Statistics 2012 report, “African Americans were less likely than White people to have seen a doctor or other health professional in the past six months” while also examining the attitudes of minority groups in “adverse reactions by White clinicians” which illustrated that the higher the distrust scores, the more negative were attitudes. During the 1800s, Dr. Thomas Hamilton utilized an African American male slave to evaluate the effects of the medication he was developing for heat strokes. Throughout the experiment, the slave fainted and had to be revived to continue the study (Douglas, 2020). In addition, the infamous Tuskegee study involved deceiving 600 African American men, injecting them with syphilis, and falsely promising them free health care, which they never received (Chatmon, 2020). The historical–cultural evidence of distrust suggests that African American men have justified reasons to be distrustful of health systems, causing them to refrain from seeking treatment due to apprehensions about the treatment’s validity.” - Excerpt from American Journal of Men’s Health (Sept 2024)

Black Men Get Beyond Pursuits to Purposefulness

“Way too many Black boys are now being raised and way too many have already been raised to be men with self-limiting, self-defeating, self-diseasing, and self-destructive senses of becoming and being a man. This narrow and self-sabotaging notion of manhood unfortunately results in way too many Black men being consumed with chasing money, pussy, clothes, jewelry, shoes, and vehicles; too many Black men ending up on alcohol and drugs; too many ending up in prisons, hospitals, homeless, or on the streets as bums. Indeed, too many Black men have been raised with wrong lowering ‘pursuits’ and not with a elevating higher sense of ‘purpose’.”- KenRaySun

Black Men Crying is 'Cleansing' And It Don't Make You 'Weak'

            “People can cry much easier than they can change.”             James Baldwin

Black men in America have to carry a heavy internal emotional distress burden.

Black men are on the bottom of almost every socioeconomic measure and first on others: on the bottom when it comes to employment and first when it comes to being murdered by the police; on the bottom when it comes to homelessness and first when it comes to being in prison.

Indeed, there's much psycho-socioeconomic hardships that Black men could cry about, however Black men have been socialized not to cry 'release', but to release through anger and violence and suppress through drugs and alcohol use; too many Black men 'mash-out' (escape) and too many 'crash-out' (self-destruct) instead of 'crying out' at times.

Yes, there are benefits of crying for both the body and mind by restoring emotional balance, dulling pain, and activating your para-sympathetic nervous system to help you self-soothe. Crying has benefits for the grieving process, Black men die are 'killed' the most in America; they carry so much sorrow, numbness, depression, and grief within.

Black men crying is an important safety valve, largely because keeping difficult stuffed feelings inside what psychologists' call 'repressive coping' is bad for our health. Studies have linked repressive coping with a weaker immune system, ulcers, hypertension, strokes, cardiovascular disease, as well as with mental health conditions like anxiety and mood disorders.

Yes, Black men releasing emotional tears have health benefits; emotional tears contain stress hormones and other toxins. Researchers have theorized that crying flushes this distress and toxicity out of our system.

“Crying doesn’t mean you’re weak. Sometimes it’s what you need to do to get strong again.” – J.W. Lynne

Black Male Unity is Necessary in Racist America

"When racist white police stop Black men driving their vehicles they don't see democrats or republicans, Christians or Muslims, they only see a Black man! When racist employers interact with Black men applying for jobs they don't see democrats or republicans, Christians or Muslims, they only see a Black man! Indeed, Black men we are not targets of racism because we're democrats or republicans, Christians or Muslims, we are repressed because we are Black men! Yes, as Black men we have a common experience, so let us Unite!" - Ken RaySun

Black Men 'Recreate' Ourselves

"Under the white institutional power structure as Black men we undergo 2 creation processes: first many times 'self-defeating', we are often ‘raised’ wrong and educated worse; second 'self-winning', we must ‘upraise’ ourselves through 'course correction' the ongoing inner struggle to have the best reasoning and actions." - KenRaySun