Not a Blog Against Racism — For Inclusiveness

Posted on December 1, 2005 in Justice Stigma

UPDATED: Some clarifications made. Decapitation less likely. The keyboard was glowing when I wrote this last night.

Two nights ago, I attended my regular Depressive and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) support group meeting. We had our circle of regulars and a couple of new people, both of whom were African Americans. One was a Booster — the type of individual who invokes everything from the 12-Steps to Toastmasters for his recovery.

The other fellow was a gentleman who told us the real story of his life: how he began selling drugs and worked his way out of that into a legitimate job as a salesman. Then he just fell apart and he didn’t understand why. His minister sent him to his doctor. His doctor referred him to a psychiatrist who told him about bipolar illness and wrote appropriate prescriptions.

He was in a bad place. He wanted very badly to “break the usual African American cycle” and allow his fiance to be a homemaker rather than have to be the main support for the family. She showed signs of making the kinds of mistakes that many uninformed family members make about dealing with the mental illness of a loved one. Things probably said in love that his brain took in as abuse because she hadn’t thought things through or been properly coached. He believed that she hated him for being sick, which upon further questioning, didn’t seem to be the case.

I and the other members of that group knew where he was. Oh, and how. I told him about my bad years when I believed that my wife was against me, when I felt she didn’t stand up enough for me. He pulled out a tissue and dabbed his eyes. There, I thought, was a brave, brave man.

Several of us gave him phone numbers, URLs, and addresses for organizations which could help him and his fiance deal. “Just about everytime I attend one of our open lectures,” I said, “we get some family member stand up and ask “Yes, but how do we control them?” Of course, every bipolar knows the answer to that one: you don’t control. You cope.

Every one of the organizations we sent him to was colorblind. I am proud that he could walk into a DBSA meeting and be immediately told “You’re one of us, guy. We understand. ” And I am glad that if he returns next week (so many people of all colors don’t), he can sit down with us and we will tell him the same thing. “You’re one of us.”

And he will always be one of us.

This Blog Against Racism Day which came out with no connection to anything that I have heard about seems to me to not answer that man’s needs. They will write about how bad racism is. They may have an anecdote about some person of color who they saw while driving to the grocery store. Maybe they have seen one of the many DWBs (Driving While Black) that afflict our pretty suburbs. They will speak about that, but they won’t be there to offer much in the way of day to day support for those people.

And whether you are the victim of a crime/police harassment or mentally ill or homeless, that’s what counts. For me, it means being there on Tuesday when the group meets and being able to look at the new man or woman who comes through the door, to say “You’re one of us”. To find and nourish that deep root that we share in common.

How inclusive are you?

* * * * *

Here is something many conservatives and liberals won’t be announcing on their blogs: 10 December is International Human Rights Day. The World Health Organization is putting the focus on The Rights of the Mentally Ill. “Dare to Care.” The facts are grim:

In many countries, people with mental disorders live with their families or on their own, with no support from the Government, and are segregated from society due to the lack of community-based services. They often face isolation and stigmatization, resulting in discrimination in education, employment and housing, which affect their ability to gain access to appropriate care, integrate into society and recover. In some countries, they are prohibited from voting, marrying or having children. Nearly one of four countries has no mental health laws, while many do not have adequate legislation.

The United States is not one of the better countries for caring for the mentally ill. The recent Medicare change is disastrous for all its beneficiaries who must use psychotropics. Many African Americans are prevented from attending our meetings because they end up in prisons rather than psych wards. The problems of the mentally ill are overlooked by conservatives who write us off as crazy or evil and by liberals who don’t want to give up their misuse of psychiatric diagnoses as vehicles for attack. We do have a long ways to go, a very long ways.

And we who suffer from organic brain dysfunction are trying to figure out just how to reach into the prisons and jails so that our brothers and sisters in the disease aren’t left alone. That is the first step to awareness and liberation for the mentally ill who have fallen afoul of the Law. Society has no clue how to cope with the mentally ill. Most of its members just find one way or another to control them.

Today is also World AIDS Day.