"Mental Health, School Segregation and Murder"

Just last week, a colleague and I were discussing an article we had read by Dana Goldstein. In the article, Goldstein reports that American schools are more segregated today by race and economic status than when Martin Luther King, Jr. was alive 43 years ago. "Overall, black and Latino students sit in classrooms that are 90 to 100 percent black and Latino". My colleague, an educated, professional African-American male, argued that desegregation was a huge mistake for the black community because it taught us how NOT to support each other. He also said that it led to more affluent blacks moving out of their nice neighborhoods, taking black, well educated role models with them. As a result, poorer and less educated blacks were left with the remnants of vacant houses, drugs and a cycle of emotional scarring that only perpetuated the psychological effects of slavery. I agreed with his last point.



There is no doubt that desegregation has had both positive and negative effects on society, and African-Americans in particular. However, it was a noble concept with good intentions that reflected the social consciousness of its time. Shame on then civil rights leaders if nothing had been designed to attempt to indemnify the affects of slavery and the Jim Crow laws of yesteryear. I applaud my ancestors efforts and bravery for doing what others would not. So, as with every generation, it is now our time to do our part and continue what our civil rights leaders started over forty years ago.



Whoever says that we don't have leaders like we did in the past are either short sighted, cynical, lazy or have begun to lose hope. When I work with, talk with and engage young people these days, I see the hopelessness, but I also see the strength and the potential. We adults just have to be willing to lead and be the change we wish to see in our homes, our neighborhoods, cities, our nation and the world. Of course when we hear of tragedies like the recent one involving Gabrielle Giffords by Jared Lee Loughner, one of our nation's most troubled youth, it is easy to get quickly discouraged and cast blame. One might blame the Loughner's parents, our mental health system, the grocery store where the shooting took place, the police, all young people and even the government. There is no doubt that what happened to Giffords and others shot or hurt is sad, unfortunate and even unacceptable in 2011. However, if we can each take some time to reflect own our own lives, we might find hope and healing in the long run. Following Giffords' current courage to rehabilitate herself is where I find the strength I need to do my part.



If we each take a close look at the all of these realities (school segregation, our current mental health system and the staggering statistics surrounding teen suicide and murder) we might find ourselves in one of these stories. We each might find perspective in the intellectual, research-related reality of our clearly broken mental health system; or the way being bused to school miles away from our neighborhood left its emotional mark on our psyche; or the knowledge, shame and pain of living with a son or daughter who is affected by depression, bipolar disease or schizophrenia and not knowing what to do about it can sometimes leave one immobilize to act. Regardless of where we find perspective, we must not complain, blame or sit and do nothing. We must use our perspective, our sadness, our outrage to ACT and we must act NOW! And where we can't find a way to "all just get along", we must find the courage and strength in our hearts to do our small part to be that change we wish to see. Let's repair our own mental health and help others do the same. Let's teach our children to make friends with those who are different, Let's show our babies that murder is not the answer.

Scatter Peace, Wisdom, Love and Joy...

True SISTER