(ThyBlackMan.com) Have you ever witnessed the sometimes excruciating pain that befalls those among us whose loyalty outweighs even the innate compulsion to survive? I have. Generally speaking, what makes this situation genuinely unbearable is that the person or entity that those receiving the alluded to commitment have done nothing to deserve such feelings.
It pains me to state that I have witnessed many of the men that I love suffer for years under the above yoke of unrequited love. My father, my uncle Steve, and nearly every man, regardless of race, that I encountered in my hometown of Mansfield, Ohio, were seemingly cursed at birth to be born with a heart that attached itself to the hapless Cleveland Browns. Any sports fan can tell you that those who love the Cleveland Browns shall most certainly have the optimism of September dwindle into a bitter winter. If I did not know any better, I would be believed that the arrival of misery for Cleveland Browns fans is as reliable as the changing of the seasons. Amazingly, not a single Cleveland Browns fan will publicly admit their misfortune; where we see doom and gloom, they hold fast to a credo of “just wait until next year.”
Truthfully I secretly harbor an inextinguishable hope that the Cleveland Browns will eventually win a Super Bowl and bring a moment of glee to those who have suffered a lifetime of disappointment.
I am grateful that my lack of interest in the rapidly approaching National Football League season did not prevent me from engaging a recent report regarding Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon. Gordon, an embattled figure who has been repeatedly suspended by the NFL for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, is finally set to return to the gridiron after taking time away to develop skills to subdue daunting demons that shadow his every move.
I applaud Josh Gordon for finally understanding what far too few black men comprehend about mental health, particularly their own psychological well-being. The benefit of hindsight and a copious amount of courage has paved the way for the embattled wide receiver to admit that he, like so many other black males, has suffered from mental health issues for as long as he can remember.
In many ways, the combination of a stoicism that appears to be a standard fixture in the socialization of black men and the stress and strain of being black in America form the perfect storm for the development of mental issues among black men. It is quite a conundrum to live in a patriarchal nation that handcuffs one’s ability to secure financial resources to their manhood. This false equivalency translates into a precarious situation for the millions of black men who have no control over either their employment or economic status in this nation.
Black men such as Josh Gordon, myself, your uncle, your son, your nephew, learn to cope with their dreaded existence through a host of means such as: becoming a workaholic, promiscuity, alcoholism, drug addiction, or growing reclusive.
For Josh Gordon and many of the young black males that I teach on a daily basis, their means of coping with the challenges of being black and male in America seemingly require either promiscuity, an activity that allows them to assert their manhood to others, or some form of addiction. It is difficult to argue against the reality that the trials-and-tribulations of being a black man in America encourage a series of mental health issues. Unfortunately for black men, they have learned to self-medicate themselves in a desperate attempt to stave off omnipresent demons of inadequacy and sadness.
I feel compelled to thank Josh Gordon for allowing his struggle with securing even a tenuous peace that is frequently compromised by the consumption of marijuana, rage, or the rabid use of alcohol. What many black men rationalize as a “good time” are dead-ends that offer no solution to underlying mental health issues.
In the push to “take care of ourselves,” we rarely discuss that mental health is as important, if not more important, than our physical body. Black men, myself included, must make a concerted effort to manage the stress and strain of being a black man in a patriarchal nation ruled by whites where manhood remains an undefined concept that very few understand.
Staff Writer; Dr. James Thomas Jones III
Official website; http://www.ManhoodRaceCulture.com
One may also connect with this brother via Twitter; DrJamestJones.