Veterans Affairs officials have announced that studying the uniquely supportive culture of black women might provide a key to addressing the spike in suicides occurring in the armed forces. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Suicides among U.S. military members have spiked this year, with an average of one suicide a day — the highest rate so far during a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.” MSNBC reports that this is an 18 percent increase in military suicides compared to last year.
While the government does not break down military suicides according to race, among the general population African-American women have the lowest suicide rate of any group. Surprisingly, white men die most often by their own hand. “The suicide rate among white men was 25.96 per 100,000 from 2005 to 2009, according to the Centerns for Disease Control and Prevention,” related Government Executive magazine in its piece on studying black women to reduce soldier suicides. “By comparison, the rate for black women was less than three suicides per 100,000.”
Veterans Affairs mental health director for suicide prevention, Jan Kemp, told the publication that the specific social qualities black women exhibit will be examined by her group to determine how they might be applied for military personnel. Desirable features of how African-American women relate include open and honest communication, strong social support, and positive encouragement.
“The sense of community among themselves, and the … built-in support that they get from each other is something we’re paying a lot of attention to, and trying to find ways to emulate,” Kemp told Government Executive. “I think often that veterans and men don’t have that same sort of personal support, and we have to build that for them.”
Facets of black women’s intensely loyal communities were glimpsed in a recent Washington Post story that focuses on how we are faring. This in-depth article elaborates on the findings of the most extensive poll concerning black women to date. The ladies featured are positive, resilient, and dedicated to helping each other thrive with full awareness of the pervasive stereotypes and depressing statistics threatening their sense of efficacy.
The Washington Post/Kaiser Family Foundation poll detailed found that 67 percent of black women describe themselves as having high self-esteem, as opposed to only 43 percent of white women — among other surprising facts that demonstrate that black women maintain their self-esteem regardless of circumstances.
The main question that the Post story fails to answer is: why? Why do black women have better emotional outcomes than both white men and women in the differing areas of suicide and self-esteem? Kemp and her colleagues will need to know how black women have survived the “double burden” of female and racial oppression if this incredible coping ability is to be transferred to soldiers.
“Two things make a black woman have a lower suicide rate,” Sophia Nelson, the author of Black Woman Redefined, told theGrio. One of the main sources of strength for African-American women according to the MSNBC analyst is a long-standing tradition of deep religiousness. “Black women are considered the most loyal faith-based group in the country. It’s really black women’s coping mechanism. Black people go to church at the highest rate in this country, black women being the largest portion of that group.”
Nelson believes that black women’s faith leads them to find solace in their spirituality, rather than considering suicide. An African-American woman is more likely to turn over her problems to a higher power — God. “Black women always feel like we can go to the church,” Nelson, a frequent contributor to theGrio, noted.
Her perspective is supported by the research of New York University professor Jacqueline Mattis. Mattis’ article Religion and Spirituality in the Meaning-Making and Coping Experience of African American Women is extensively quoted in Black Woman Redefined to illuminate how the power of prayer is part of an arsenal of skills black women maintain for enduring treacherous circumstances. Mattis states that “the most consistent finding regarding the coping experiences of African American women is that religion and spirituality hold central places in these women’s coping repertoires.”
At the same time, “research suggests that in their efforts to cope with life’s challenges, African American women employ a myriad of strategies, including humor, revenge, and the advice of other black women in their social networks,” Mattis elaborates.
“We are always there for each other,” Nelson concurred to theGrio. “As much as black women can tear each other down, we also always have each others’ back.”
The second component that leads to lower suicide rates for black women? Nelson believes it is our proverbial “strength” — but that we did not develop into a nation of “strong black women” overnight.
“The strength of black women harkens back to slavery, but that strength is not just physical — it’s also spiritual. It has evolved,” the expert on the black female experience explained. “We have been through slavery, Jim Crow, and suffered the social injuries of being both black and female. I would argue that black women, because of the horror we have endured — that puts you in a very unique situation. Their strength and their spirituality is what saved them — because of their history. It’s kind of like being a marathon runner. You build up your endurance over time.”
It is possible that the qualities that Kemp admires about black women’s culture of support can be taught to prevent military suicides. Openness and close social networking might be augmented with encouraging spirituality for soldiers under intense psychological stress. But, re-creating the emotional strategies honed from centuries of fighting social oppression through interpersonal relating might prove tougher to replicate. Still, this news is heartening.
In a society in which most studies involving African-American females generate endless reports that are resoundingly negative, the idea that black women might be examined as a source of solutions shows that this group is one step closer to experiencing warm, public appreciation — instead of depreciation through negative stereotypes.
Follow Alexis Garrett Stoghill on Twitter at @lexisb.