Edmonia Lewis (1845-1909) was an African American and Native American sculptor that would find success despite discrimination for her race and gender. She was an art student at Oberlin College and would excel in her courses but would later drop out after being accused of theft and poisoning two classmates; this led to a mob beating her up severely, only to have her acquitted of any wrong doing at trial. She would later move to Boston to further her education in sculpting. Her big break would come in 1864 with a bust she made of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw being widely celebrated and selling many copies; this would supply her with enough money to move to Rome. She would spend most of her adult career in Italy and became a highly paid and internationally respected sculptor.Two of her most notable works are: Forever Free and The Death of Cleopatra.
Please stop talking about how “bad”, “wrong”, “dangerous” or “stupid” it is when people self-diagnose, especially in regard to mental illness.
Let’s go over the reasons this is fucked up, problematic and oppressive.
1. Classism. Psychiatric and other types of evaluations are really fucking expensive, and often inaccessible. The last psych eval I had cost me $500. Anything involving neurology? Costs a SHIT TON more. Not to mention, services that are available to the poor are typically of low quality.
2. It dis-empowers people with disabilities by establishing doctors as the ultimate authorities on our own experiences. No matter how well we may know ourselves, a doctor supposedly will know better. Because they are a doctor. (And treating someone as an authority simply because they have the privilege of a formal education is classist and ableist.)
3. The entire psychiatric system is still really oppressive to people with disabilities, who can become institutionalized against their will. A lot of people understandably do not trust doctors or are afraid to pursue treatment. Forcing people to see a doctor to obtain a “real” diagnosis is ignoring this reality.
4. Psychiatry and the medical establishment are also very oppressive towards people who are marginalized in other ways. The fact that trans people can still be diagnosed as mentally ill for being trans is only one example of this. People who are out of status could risk deportation for seeking help. Etc.
5. Doctors often disagree with each other. Doctors misdiagnose and prescribe medication that can aggravate an illness. Doctors frequently make mistakes. Teaching people that their own instincts are wrong if a doctor disagrees with them can be really goddamn dangerous. Like, taking the wrong medication due to misdiagnosis can result in death, okay? Serious shit.
If your problem is with people trivializing illness, then say so. That’s not the same as self-diagnosis, which does not inherently trivialize anything. A lot of people consider self-diagnosis to be liberating, empowering, and extremely important, myself included. Don’t tell us how we are “supposed” to seek treatment, especially when it involves a system that is fundamentally flawed, largely inaccessible, and overwhelmingly oppressive.
THIS SO MUCH! I think people need to realize that minorities and women are STILL the MOST misdiagnosed in the system. I was in therapy last time(four years ago, and now I’m about to start up again for “preventative” measures) for post partum depression and my young, white, male therapist sent me to AA, I was a newly 21 yr old mother who was breastfeeding at the time. I could add so much more but they already said all that needs to be said up there ^. Also, many “issues” can be characterized by many different “illnesses” and can help to cancel out the real problem(s). Which is not good or fucking helpful.
Even when you’re getting help and being “diagnosed” it is still a part of a greatly biased system and you may need to do your own research and go to different sources and doctors and help in order to get the treatment you TRULY need.
#relevant
| — | the bad dominicana: (via theanimalnamesofplants) |
I got a message from the anon from an ask ladyatheist’s tumblr about mental ilness and PoC, and I got an anon asking for this information and I feel it is a good reference/starting point so I am making it into a post.
A lot of literature regarding people of color and mental illness is about the stigma within the Black community or Latin@ community, rather than the struggles faced from within mental health institutions, so I am mostly posting other kinds of links.
History
History of black people and mental institutions (link)
In Our Own Voice: African-American Stories of Oppression, Survival, and Recovery in Mental Health Systems (link) (pdf)
Racism and Mental Illness (link) (pdf)
Fact Sheets
African American Community Mental Health Fact Sheet
Bipolar Disorder and African-Americans
Mental Health and African Americans
Mental Health and American Indians/Alaska Natives
Mental Health and Asian Americans
“African Americans Have Limited Access to Mental and Behavioral Health Care”
Journal Articles
“Barriers to Providing Effective Mental Health Services to American Indians” (link)
“Bias in Mental Health Assessment and Intervention: Theory and Evidence” (link)
“Disparities in Mental Health Treatment in U.S. Racial and Ethnic Minority Groups: Implications for Psychiatrists” (link)
“Effective Coping Strategies of African Americans” (link)
“Ethnic Disparities in Unmet Need for Alcoholism, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Care” (link)
“Help Seeking for Mental Health Care among Poor Puerto Ricans: Problem Recognition, Service Use, and Type of Provider” (link)
“Racial Microaggressions Against African American Clients in Cross-Racial Counseling Relationships” (link)
“Racism and Mental Health: the African American experience” (link)
“Racism and Mental Health Into the 21st Century: Perspectives and Parameters” (link)
josé julio sarria, gay latino who ran for public office in 1961 - many many years before harvey milk
he ran for the san francisco board of supervisors and almost won by default, until people noticed there was a gay man running and immediately submitted everyone possible for the position. he didn’t win, but he still got 6000 votes, which shocked conservatives
he was also a drag queen popular at many of the balls at the time…and he still does it today (lookin good for a guy in his late 80s)!
What, a queer of color ran for office before Harvey Milk?
yeah, white people aren’t known for doing their history well.
The fact that he was gay was the reason he didn’t get elected. It has nothing to do with him being Latino. This is a matter of a gay man getting into some kind of elected position, and Harvey Milk beat him to it. Do not make this a matter of race, for this is a matter of sexual orientation.
I don’t think you…read the writing there…
It’s not saying he didn’t get elected for being Latino, it says right in there it was because he’s gay/queer. The part where race comes in is that in our history we are taught that Milk was the first gay/queer to run for some sort of office, erasing a queer person of COLOUR. It is erased because we live in a society that tries to teach that whiteness is superior and better at everything, always *first*. Here a POC was first, yet we are taught the opposite.First of all, I’m drunk; so fuck you. Second, the post is not about the first gay man to run for office. It appears to be so, but the comment “What, a queer of color ran for office before Harvey Milk?/yeah, white people aren’t known for doing their history well.” throws everything off. Harvey Milk is the first openly gay man to be elected into office, which is what the post was about; BUT whoever made this post decided to make it about race, saying that Milk was only elected because he was white. It takes away from the fact that a gay man, regardless of race, won a publicly-elected position, and turns it into a “fuck the white man, everyone else is better, and the white man is a piece of shit” sort of thing. This post is not about how wonderful it was that Milk won, or that a gay man before him almost won, but instead it is about how a man of color is not widely taught because a white man succeeded where the colored man failed. Instead of embracing the fact that a gay man was able to be elected into a public office, it displays a racism towards the white race all because a white, gay man was elected into office years after a colored, gay man ran for office. Certainly, a man of color did RUN for office, but a gay man was elected, which is the point. I assure you it has nothing to do with race; only sexuality. M. Sarria was not elected because he was Latino, but because he was gay. The point about race is irrelevant, and should have never been brought up. Perhaps YOU did not read what was written.
put down the sauce man
Here’s a friendly reminder:
-You cannot be sexist toward men. Sexism is based on a system of oppression. You CAN be discriminatory, rude, inconsiderate, and/or prejudiced against men but you CANNOT be sexist toward them.
-You cannot be racist towards white people. Racism is based on a system of oppression. You CAN be discriminatory, rude, inconsiderate, and/or prejudiced against white people but you CANNOT be racist toward them.
This is not difficult.
I have no time or patience for “allies” for whom I would have to make accommodations in my cause.
If you demand such accommodations in a cause against oppression of a group in which you do not belong, you are no ally.
If you come to me with shit like “you’re just alienating people with your attitude”, prepare to be cut loose because you just proved in a mere sentence just how much you do NOT get it.
Because it’s not about you or the poor alienated allies. IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU. Repeat this until it’s burnt into your brain because this is the single most important thing and one that so often gets overlooked or misunderstood among would-be allies: OUR SURVIVAL AND WELL-BEING ARE NOT ABOUT YOU.
They are about US. OUR needs. OUR dreams. OUR voices. If we can’t write the script for our own emancipation, it’s not really emancipation, and whatever it is, it’s definitely not ours.
Because sometimes, the best an ally can do is step down and make space for those who are actually affected by the issue at hand. Sometimes all you can do is shut it and listen. And that’s where we actually need you most: listening, taking stuff in, making space for us where there used to be none.
If instead of doing these and offering support in any other tangible way you wish to make all this about your feelings and your desires and how you wish to be engaged, you’re re-centering your own privilege and thus are not worth my time.
Because my time? is limited and precious. My means for engagement are similarly limited. My methods for figuring shit out need not accommodate anyone but me. I cannot afford the additional energy drain of meeting white people halfway and figuring shit out for them.
(TW: racist murder) Remember 68 year old ex-Marine Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. who accidentally called for medical help and was later murdered in his own home by White Plains, NY police?
Well, the murderer, Anthony Carelli, will NOT be facing ANY charges.
This makes me physically ill, every time I see this story, and am again reminded that we live in such a world where every bit of evidence can be sumarily ignored by the system that props up, and entitles such brutality. We tell ourselves that everything a policeman does is either in service of the social good, or an attempt to protect themselves. We write off their behavior when they’re…breaking down doors, tazering old men with conditions, as they’re trying to explain they’re fine. All while calling them slurs and finding their torment and fear perfectly amusing.
We live in a culture where institutionalized cruelty is written off as “following procedure”. This is a nauseating indictment of a system that refuses to examine (or dare I say police itself) itself in the slightest.
Whenever I hear about this story I think of my dad, who’s around the same age, and it fills me with so much anger and fear and disgust.
I hate this system.
