Bitch You Must Be Crazy: Representations of Mental Illness in Ntozake
Shange's for Colored Girls Who Consider Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (1976). Western Journal Of Black Studies, 37(3), 197-211. Using the colloquial idiom "bitch you must me crazy" as a launching point, this paper considers how For Colored Girls engages African American women's experiences of mental illness and the implications for a broader suicide crisis. Mental illness in its various manifestations-- psychotic, mood, anxiety, among others--is not unique to any group. Yet experiences of mental illness do not exist outside socio-historical and cultural configurations. Implicit in the play's title is both a question and a proposition about particular bodies within African American cultural contexts--Why do colored girls consider suicide? I argue that the play not only offers insight into understanding the social conditions under which many Black women experience mental illness, but it also presents theoretical models for treatment and prevention. In order to address the silences around mental health the paper considers the play's exploration of three overlapping issues: 1) the interplay between social context and psychological condition, 2) constructions of womanhood, and 3) linkages between self-reclamation and sanity. Voisin, D., Hotton, A., & Schneider, J. (2014). Exposure to Verbal Parental Aggression and Sexual Activity Among Low Income African American Youth. Journal Of Child & Family Studies, 23(2), 285-292. doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9720-7. The study examined whether witnessing verbal parental aggression (VPA) was related to sexual activity among mostly low income African American youth, and whether psychological symptoms mediated this relationship. Five hundred and sixty-three African American high school adolescents (ages 13-19) completed self-administered questionnaires, which assessed demographics, psychological problems (e.g., depression, anxiety, aggression and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms), witnessing VPA, and sexual activity. Participants who witnessed high versus no VPA were 2 times more likely to report sexual activity. This relationship was mediated by aggression for males and females, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms for females only. Youth service providers should be trained to understand the prevalence of co- occurring problems such as exposure to VPA, aggression, PTSD symptoms, and sexual activity, with the goal of more effectively supporting the healthy development of African American youth. Isom, D. (2012). Fluid and Shifting: Racialized, Gendered, and Sexual Identity in African American Children.International Journal Of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 6(11), 127- 137. "Being Black...it's, we're sometimes rugged, sometimes nice, sometimes just plain mean, but that's...the way life is."These words from a 5th grade girl reflected so much of what I heard from the children who participated in two studies exploring racialized gender identity in African American children. The participants were wise and insightful and strong beyond their years. They spoke of a deeply racialized reality, a gendered social world, and operated from a sense of self that was multifaceted and shifting. Bombarded by external images, they both reflected and at time rejected internalization of constructed identities. This paper presents the findings from two qualitative studies of African American Children and racialized gender identity. The initial research project employed participant observation ethnography, a questionnaire, and one-on- one interviews to illumine the meaning making world of African American children, focusing on the articulations and lived manifestations of their definitions of gender and racial constructions, including maleness, femaleness, femininity, masculinity, "Blackness,"and the intersections of race and gender-racialized gender identity. The follow-up study sought to engage those same issues of racialized gender, but in a church context in an effort to explore identity at the intersection of religiosity. Again, ethnography and interview were used to capture the voice of Black children. In both studies, the children displayed ideas that were a direct reflection of popular culture representations around race and gender, while also engaging in discourse that revealed the presence and desire for "authentic"identity, a self apart from external constructions. Cokley, K., McClain, S., Jones, M., & Johnson, S. (2011). A Preliminary Investigation of Academic Disidentification, Racial Identity, and Academic Achievement Among African American Adolescents. High School Journal, 95(2), 54-68. The purpose of this study was to examine academic disidentification along with demographic and psychological factors related to the academic achievement of African American adolescents. Participants included 96 African American students (41 males, 55 females) in an urban high school setting located in the Southwest. Consistent with previous research, academic disidentification was determined by looking for an attenuation of the correlation between academic self-concept and grade point average (GPA) of male and female students. The relationship between academic self-concept and grade point average significantly decreased for African American males, while it significantly increased for African American females. Demographic factors included age and sex, while psychological factors included academic self-concept, devaluing academic success, and racial identity. Results of a hierarchical regression indicated that sex and academic self-concept were significant positive predictors of GPA, while age and racial identity were significant negative predictors, accounting for 50% variance. Academic self-concept was the strongest predictor of GPA. Implications of the results are discussed. Byrd, C. M., & Chavous, T. (2011). Racial Identity, School Racial Climate, and School Intrinsic Motivation Among African American Youth: The Importance of Person-Context Congruence. Journal Of Research On Adolescence (Wiley-Blackwell), 21(4), 849-860. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2011.00743.x Researchers have been concerned with whether strong racial identification promotes or inhibits achievement motivation among African American youth, but current literatures have paid little attention to the role of youths' contexts. In this study, we outline a racial identity-context congruence framework that predicts positive benefits of a strong, positive racial identity when the context is congruent with youths' beliefs. To test this framework, we examined school racial climate as a moderator in the relationships of three racial identity variables (centrality, private regard, and public regard) with intrinsic motivation for attending school in a sample of 11th graders. Overall, results support the congruence perspective and also demonstrate how feelings of belonging at school mediate the relationship between racial identity-racial climate congruence and school intrinsic motivation. ARMSTRONG, K. L. (2013). Toward a Black Psychology of Leisure: An 'Akbarian' Critique. Western Journal Of Black Studies, 37(3), 212-222. There are a number of institutions posited as vestibules, for maintaining and reinforcing rituals and celebrations of African consciousness (i.e., education, religion, arts, etc.). The one that does not readily come to mind, however, is leisure (i.e., organized sport and physical activity). Leisure is salient to African Americans and is the terrain by whieh their personal and social identities are often nurtured. Ironically, leisure also represents a cultured space where racial oppression abounds, and is therefore often a contested space for African Americans. This essay offers a critique of the emancipatory properties of leisure through the lenses of Na "im Akbar's African-centered paradigm, via the tenets of self-knowledge (e.g., racial-self affirmation) and collective liberation (e.g., spiritual rhythm and racial kinship). It demonstrates how (at the individual/micro level) African Americans may engage in constitutive and regulatory leisure practices that enlarge their spiritual, experiential, and perceptual spheres of freedom, thereby allowing them some control over the nature and quality of their leisure experiences. In so doing, this essay elucidates the 'Black Psychology' that undergirds African Americans' leisure pursuits. Murry, V., McNair, L., Myers, S., Chen, Y., & Brody, G. (2014). Intervention Induced Changes in Perceptions of Parenting and Risk Opportunities Among Rural African American. Journal Of Child & Family Studies, 23(2), 422-436. doi:10.1007/s10826-013-9714-5 A randomized prevention trial was conducted contrasting families who took part in the Strong African American Families Program (SAAF), a preventive intervention for rural African American parents and their 11-year-olds, with control families. The trial, which included 671 families, indicated that intervention-induced changes occurred in intervention-targeted parenting and youth behavior, as well as youth initiation of alcohol use and sexual activity. Four waves of data collected were obtained at pretest, 3-month post-test, 29 month long-term follow up; and 65 month long-term follow up. Three data points were selected and analyzed in the current study: pretest, post-test, and 65 month long-term follow up to capture the sustainability of SAAF during three critical developmental stages-middle childhood, early adolescence, and late adolescence. Intervention-induced changes in parenting mediated the effect of intervention-group influences on changes in the onset and escalation of alcohol use and sexual activity over 65 months through its positive influence on youths' perceptions and internalization of parental norms and resistance to engaging in risk opportunities. These findings highlight the potential for family- based prevention programs to enhance positive developmental outcomes to reduce HIV-related risk behaviors among rural African American youth. Smith, S. H., & Whitehead III, G. I. (2013). A Preliminary Study of Psychological Distancing by African Americans and Whites. North American Journal Of Psychology, 15(2), 235-242. The present study adds to the literature on psychological distancing by having African American and White participants rate the similarity of their personalities to that of a target person with cancer. We predicted and found that African American participants judge their personalities to be less similar to that of a target person with cancer than did Whites. Our investigation replicates research showing that African Americans psychologically distance more than do Whites in some situations, while using a different operational definition of psychological distancing than that employed in other studies. Implications of these findings are discussed. BUSH, L. V., & BUSH, E. C. (2013). God Bless the Child Who Got His Own: Toward a Comprehensive Theory for African-American Boys and Men. Western Journal Of Black Studies, 37(1), 1-13. After more than 40 years of study, no comprehensive theory has been developed to analyze the lives of African American boys and men. Thus, the field of African American male studies is in need of its own theoretical framework. The current article challenges the dominant usage of Critical race theory (CRT) in studies involving African American boys and men. Additionally, the authors build on Ecological Systems theory, which is essentially an African way of knowing, to construct a framework -- African American Male theory (AAMT) -- that articulates the position and trajectory of African American boys and men in society drawing on and accounting for pre- and post-enslavement experiences while capturing or accounting for their spiritual, psychological, biological, social, educational development, and station. Schweninger, L. (2014). Freedom Suits, African American Women, and the Genealogy of Slavery. William & Mary Quarterly, 71(1), 35-62. doi:10.5309/willmaryquar.71.1.0035 An essay is presented concerning lawsuits known as freedom suits filed by freed persons in the U.S. during the late 18th century and early 19th century and their significance concerning efforts by African American women to preserve the genealogy of slavery. The article states that many of the lawsuits, also known as complaints, revealed the histories of African American families and their interactions with whites.