Black America: It’s time to stop taking care of everyone but you

By Sophia A. Nelson, The Grio

OPINION: As Mental Health Awareness Month comes to a close and after two traumatic mass shootings in the past weeks, Sophia Nelson offers some life lessons on self-care.

This has been a rough Mental Health Awareness Month for America, but particularly for Black and brown Americans who, in just the span of one week, endured the unthinkable at a local grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y., and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Let’s just say it: Black and brown people in America are under assault. This is the state of our nation right now. Eighteen-year-old boys menacing innocent men, women and children with weapons of war. A nation where we scream at one another daily on social media—where we are divided on the teaching of critical race theory versus the “great replacement theory,” which inspires white supremacists to violence. Where school children in Ohio put up signs for whites only and teachers are being suspended for telling Black students to pick cotton. It appears that the world has gone mad. And Black people are caught in the center of it all and paying a heavy mental and emotional price…

The question then for us as Black people who live daily with so many stressors—financial stress, the stress of poverty, unemployment or underemployment, the stress of racism in the workplace and having Black skin in an America where being pulled over for a routine traffic violation can result in a death sentence at the hands of a police officer who “feared for his life.” How do we protect ourselves and take care of our own mental wellness with all this coming at us 24/7?

The answer is simple: We learn to put ourselves first. I have learned first-hand about the damage we do to ourselves when we take care of everyone but ourselves. It is quite common in our community. Black women are the biggest abusers on earth of neglecting themselves. That needs to change. Because if we don’t begin to take better care of ourselves, America is going to eat us alive.

Keep reading Nelson’s thoughts about self-care and learn about her book.

Black Americans face many mental and physical health disparities: biological weathering, racism, and police killings, all of which leave Black people wondering if they’re really free.

Don’t miss out on the latest Black news.