Black Youth, College, and Mental Health

Christin Smith

10/24/23

Black youth are stripped of their innocence and emotional needs within and outside the Black community. This treatment is due to living in an anti-Black world, which alters Black youth's experiences and has significant implications for their mental health. The U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention reported that suicide rates among Black youth aged 10 - 24 increased from previous years by 19.2%.

As Black youth navigate their identities inside their families and with their peers, their needs are sometimes left invisible. In many cases, they deal with restrictions from parents, peers, community members, and the larger society that regulates their access to choices. One of these choices may be if they should go to college immediately when they turn 18.

For some odd reason, people expect 18-year-old people to have the wisdom of a 65-year-old when they have lived in a world where their choices are made for them in most cases. There is a lack of empathy for Black youth as they navigate going to college and the challenges they face. Some are the first to go to college, some are under pressure as legacies of their families at a particular college, and for some, college is a way to attempt to change their economic status.

At 18 years old, some Black youth are moving states away from their families and do not have the emotional, mental, or financial support needed. No one explains or understands the microaggressions, anti-blackness, homophobia, ableism, and classism that Black youth can experience on all college campuses, even Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Black youth generally walk an odd line of people making them invisible and hyper-independent. Within Black communities, our youth often do not get to be children due to a number of issues directly related to racism. When Black youth express themselves, they face the backlash of being "soft" or not understanding because they are young.

Black youth struggle with their mental health being accommodated. In the Black community, mental health topics have just started to be discussed openly. This is mainly due to the historical racist nature of the mental health field. The older generations tell the Black youth to push through all problems. I hold space for previous generations who did not have access to the resources we have today in mental health, but we all have to do a better job supporting the needs of Black youth and their mental health as they navigate college. It is not enough to keep telling Black youth to push through this structure and never acknowledge their mental health needs.

We need solutions that are not about silently holding in our feelings and emotions. Black youth who are navigating college need community support that allows them to fall apart and that does not perpetuate perfectionism onto them at the cost of their mental health.

What Black youth need who are entering college is empathy and a diversity of mental health professionals on their college campus because not all Black youth have the same needs. Our Black youth deserve to fall apart, fail, not understand, and be supported with the proper community and professional care as they navigate their lives.

Our Black youth are in heavy political times where significant laws have been made or overturned that negatively impact their body autonomy and access to health and education. It is essential for us to create communities of empathy for them that hold space for their imperfections and safe spaces for them to get assistance for their mental health.