Welcome to a special edition of People.Power.Perspectives. The podcast where we're talking to youth who are overcoming system inequities to achieve just outcomes.
Hi, welcome to this episode of People.Power.Perspectives. I'm Marcel Harris with CA4Health and we are partnering with the Empowering Black Youth Program on a special series of podcasts and are excited to have Justin Boyle with us today. He is currently a USF student and intern with the empowering black youth program at Code Tenderloin and will be moderating today's session on mental health with some of the EBY program participants. Justin, go ahead and take it away.
All right, thank you for the introduction. Like I said earlier, I am a first year and business student at the University of San Francisco, I'm also interning with the Code Tenderloin Empowering Black Youth Program. In addition to that I run my own podcast called Troof to Power on Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcast. And yeah, I want to turn it over to my fellow black youth and allow them a chance to introduce themselves. So take it away, guys.
I'm Isis and I'm a behavior technician I'm 22 years old, and intern with Code tenderloin as well, part of the EBY Program.
Hi I'm Deja, I'm a senior in high school. I'm 17. And I'm an intern at empowering black youth.
I am Shamarrie I'm 17. I'm a junior in high school, and I'm also an intern empowering black youth.
Alright, thanks for introducing yourself guys. And just to kind of break this ice off. In this conversation, we're gonna be talking about mental health, specifically mental health in the black community in the mental health from the perspective of black youth. So for this first question, what are some mental health issues that black youth specifically go through? And to start us off let's started with Asia.
I think for me, it would be family situations, mostly like adults commenting on current events that's happening in the child's life and downplaying them because they didn't go through what the previous generation went through and kind of belittering their child's thoughts, or like this experience overall, and saying that they they shouldn't be feeling certain ways, like feeling depressed about certain situations that that current in their life because their life isn't, quote, unquote, as rough as their parents.
And then if we can hear from Shamarrie on this one.
I do agree with Deja. On that I like agree with a lot of what she said. But what I do want to add on is yes, some black families do try to live their life throughout their child, and that may like ruin their mental state throughout their childhood, because they feel like they haven't done this because they decided to have a child.
No, I wholeheartedly agree with that. I think there's a very interesting perspective and things that we don't talk about enough in our community. And I want to extend this question to ISIS to round it off. So Isis, just to repeat the question, what are some mental health issues that black youth go through?
I'm tagging off of what Deja said as well. My focus really is anxiety, depression, just find it to that stigma that you had to be struggling to everyone else. Especially like, as a black woman, you want to like, make sure that everyone is protected, that you're protected, that you're just on your grind and your focus and everything.
Okay, and then transitioning to this next question, a little bit of a bigger, broader question. But how does witnessing the unjustified killings on social media platforms and even mass media platforms. Like the news is being black youth. I mean, not being too far removed from 2020. And all the protests and things that happened back then. And how does witnessing something like that on social media or the news. How does that impact the mental health and the mental stability of black youth? And to start this off, let's hear from Shamarrie.
In my opinion, everything that's like on the news and social media and every other platform to express more of their concern, but when they see that they suspect other black or African American people to be the same or do the same, when I see other African American and black females or youth being hurt in any type of way on like social media and everything. It actually really does hurt. It hurts like deeply, even though I like don't know the person. It hurts a lot.
Yeah, definitely. And then to take the conversation to Deja, let's see if you have anything to add.
For me, I had to take a breathe. For me, just seeing all these things that happen so recently back in 2020, and even now, it has been the age of I am like I can better understand what's going on, and everything, and still being in school and studying back in the 80s, in the 1900s, and everything that we've been fighting for, it just seems like nothing changed. And the only thing that really have, well, I can't even say that because nothing, in our current nation hasn't changed, everything is still the way it was back then we may have few rights here and there, but it's not enough. And just seeing everything in the media and what's going on. It clearly shows that what they wrote in the Constitution, many, many years ago still doesn't apply to black people, or people of color, because they're still getting away with a lot of things that they wouldn't be able to get away with. If they were a lighter skin complexion like white. So my take on it.
Yeah, I'm actually glad you took a second to take a breath at that cuz this is a loaded question. It's something heavy to talk about for black youth, especially when we talk about mental health and things that aren't too far removed from us, like 2020, and all the protest and things like that. So yeah, I do appreciate you doing that, taking some time to gather yourself because this is a heavy topic for us to talk about. And to finish it off Isis again. Do you have anything to add to that question?
Yeah, definitely makes me feel unsafe and worried, especially like for my brothers, because you never know when anything bad can happen. Like my brother, he's a laborer. And even though he be on his P's and Q's, and he's safe, as safe as he can be, it doesn't matter. Like you can meet a Karen, and it can escalate from there, or it could be walking home from work and something pop off. It just makes you feel like even though we have these laws in place for are safety, they're not being utilized. Like, we're not actually we have to make a way out of no way.
You know, totally, we can definitely feel isolated and almost scary to be a black youth right now, especially when we can just easily see a horendous, things happen to us on our phones or our TVs, but thinking about how we protect ourselves and solutions and ways to better our own mental health. This next question is asking, what are some activities that you yourself engaged in to address your mental health? So this could be something like dancing and painting? And basically, how do you take care of yourself and let's hear from you Isis?
Well, what I do. I've actually just got into yoga, and like meditation, and it sounds corny, but it actually like really helps with like, just calming the mind, and just sensing your body and just like listening to your body and what it needs. In that moment, as I was just reading, listening to just classical reggae music, painting as well. Art is definitely like, a way for me to escape any sort of negative emotions, and I'm having tried to avoid
Yeah, totally, I don't think yoga and meditation is corny, I actually am a big advocate for it. So it's actually pretty cool that you said that. But taking it to Deja what are some of those activities that you engage in to protect your mental health and protect your peace?
For me, I like to run track, I'ma D1 athlete and the track and field for so just getting on the track and just sprinting that 100 meter or sprinting at 200 by doing long jump, triple jump, just walk into a different mind state, and just be constantly and just being around my teammates, and just like other people who are friends, and just being able to talk about my feelings are just being in a safe environment around other people that look like me cuz most of my friends are black. And just being able to express my feelings around them, helps me and I also like dancing and doing a lot of art stuff, like painting and other things like that.
Yeah definitely obviously it's important to do things that you know are routine to you and things that you love to make sure that you're always getting back to your original self and feeling that peace. And to round this question. Now I'm going to take the mic and give it to Shamarrie.
What I do is I play basketball, and I sing music. When I'm like playing basketball, you're not really focused on everything around you. You're like focusing on like making the ball and making sure everything's right. And when you listen to music, it's just like keeping that steady heartbeat and keeping that rate when you're playing. That's what I do.
I think that's very important, you know, always, you know, having something that we can come back to and call our own and feel safe in and then to round this conversation out. Now I do have one more question. That's more so about community and you know, kind of being in spaces with other black youth. And I guess the question is how it has been something like the EBYprogram or you know, just being in places of community, how has that strengthened or helped your mental health? And to start this off, we can start with Deja.
Being in the EBY program. And I'm in like other programs like this to like the 100% college prep program, but just being in like these two programs surrounded by people that look like me and have experienced things that I've been through and just able to have a open, open space to express all my feelings and those complaints about everything, and just hearing other people experience knowing that I'm not the only person that had an experience like this are got a bad grade for writing something in my perspective, I don't know. It's just I guess calming. And it just relieves a lot because you hear other stories that other people went through and just knowing that you're just not the only person.
And I couldn't agree more being in spaces that community are always the best, you know, so make sure that you're not the only one experiencing certain things is definitely a comforting and reassuring feeling. But taking this question to Isis, how do you feel about that.
Makes me feel accounted for and like not isolated or alone, living in San Francisco, there's a lot of diversity, and you rarely see anything that's really for us, by us and for our community. But we venture out to other states, like how I visited Georgia, when I was going to Spelman, there's so there's like, unlimited resources for you. And it feels so familiar. So I guess being in the EBY program makes you feel makes me feel like I'm in a familiar comfortable space to express how I feel. And in a safe environment.
Yeah, definitely will never underestimate the importance of being in an environment that we can call safe and feel comfortable in. But to round this conversation out the whole conversation actually, we're going to end with Shamarrie.
This program, it helps a lot knowing that you have like people surrounded by you, it makes you not feel alone, basically, to know that you're not the only person that's like struggling or not the only person that wants to know about this, these things, that's the program for me. It helps mentally.
Yeah, definitely. And I just want to thank you guys, Deja, Shamarrie, Isis, I want to thank you guys for having this conversation with me. Now it's pretty important that us black youth stay together and embrace each other, as well as get the outside support from our friends at the Public Health Institute. So we'll turn it back over them.
Awesome. Thank you, Isis. Thank you, Shamarrie. And thank you Deja, I can't tell you how important it is to continue speaking up and sharing your voice as someone who comes from the mental health field, we used to have a saying that you're not alone. And I really feel like the EBY program embodies that and creates that sense of community. And in turn, it really helps you know, to have those positive outlets and so continue to do what you have to do to ensure that you you know, you have that mental health and that from that peace and emotional and social well being. And so again, I really appreciate you all for sharing. Thank you Justin as well for moderating today's session on mental health. And to our audience. Thank you for listening to another episode of C4Health's People.Power.Perspectives Podcast.
