Customer Reviews

Black Men and Depression: Saving our Lives, Healing our Families and Friends

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The author recounts how a prominent civil rights figure foolishly stated, "No black committed suicide until integration." The supposed leader then goes on to name at least three brothers whom he knew that did kill themselves. Head protects this person's privacy, but I wish he had named the person who could have made such a stupid comment. That's just as ridiculous and uninformed as homophobes who say, "No blacks are gay." Head provides this strong anecdote to convince black men to seek therapy for depression, an illness of which he suffers himself.

Unfortunately, I think the people who will pick up this book are the ones that would already agree that mental illness in the black community needs to be seriously addressed. In that way, it's a shame that one has to read 200 pages of preaching to the choir. For those who complain about supposed "race cards," this book will really frustrate them. Though the author speaks of the microaggressions that black men face consistently, neither the author himself nor the others he describes can point to one racist act that tipped them into depression. I agree with the brother that racism is burden which negatively affects the mental health of black men, but I think many readers skeptical of that supposition will not be convinced here.

The author says little about masculinity and rigid male gender roles. Thus, this book applies to black women almost as much as it does to black men. Concerns about gun violence, disproportionate prison populations, and stereotypes of the angry black man are gendered, but his discussion of racism and the need to have adequate mental health care was not. One can only ask if he excluded women because he thought it would lure in more black male readers or if this tactic would get black wives and other female relatives to pick this up for the men in their lives. (The author never states his wife's race; this makes me think she is white because I think he would have spelled out how his illness affected a black wife if that were his individual situation.) Still, the end of the book does talk about how black women can convince their male loved ones to seek counseling.

The book has deceptive chapter titles. One of the best chapters, "If You're Black Go Around Back," sounds like it would be another chapter on racism, but instead it spoke of imprisoned brothers and those who are homeless. The author focuses on medicine as the cure and says little on counseling. This is a problem: Americans of all races and genders just want to pop a pill to cure their ills instead of seriously thinking about prevention, especially that in the long-term. Because men, including black men, don't seek counseling enough, this was a huge, problematic missing piece of the book.

This book speaks of (in)famous black men and their mental concerns, for example, Mike Tyson, Jayson Blair, and Dr. King. The author said his psychotherapist was white and mentions Former First Lady R. Carter and gay Yalie Andrew Solomon in his book, so white professionals in the mental health field will probably fill very comfortable with this book and may recommend it to many others.

Readers may want to read this alongside Ellis Cose's "Rage of a Privileged Class" or see the film "The Hours" at the same time because the depression and anger in all of these seems to come from nowhere. Though the author fails to mention it, movies such as "The Brothers" and books like E. Lynn Harris' autobiography cover black men seeking mental therapy as well.