Young Black Men Are Now Dying by Suicide at a Historic Rate

Adam Mahoney, CapitalB

Suicide in America has long been portrayed as a white, rural, middle-age problem. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dismantles that image. 

For the first time since the U.S. government began collecting the data, young Black men are dying by suicide at a higher rate than young white men. 

Brandon Jones, a mental health professional who works with young Black men, said the numbers reflect an accumulation of unresolved pain colliding with a generation that is, perhaps for the first time, willing to name it. 

“We’ve had these key political situations and social pushes that have affected us as a collective,” he said. “Young Black people are feeling a trauma response that is leading to people wondering, ‘Do I want to keep living in a world that is treating me [poorly] in this situation?’” 

Jones added that awareness of mental health has grown significantly, but the tools to respond to that awareness have not kept pace: “There’s awareness that is heightened, but there’s a lack of what the proper responses are.”

New figures from the CDC show that, in total across genders, Black Americans have seen their overall suicide death rate climb 53% between 2014 and 2024, more than 10 times faster than white people and twice as high as Latinos and Native Americans. 

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