December 5, 2025 • 46 mins
You can catch the replay of the live show on black men’s health by “Blaque Diamond” on various podcast platforms, including iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, and Spotify. The show is part of the “Basic Blaque After Dark” segment on the Da Crew Podcast, which airs live every 1st and 3rd Friday at 8 PM EST.The specific episode you’re looking for likely focuses on mental and physical well-being, breaking silence in communities, and balancing faith, therapy, and community support.Based on discussions from the “Basic Blaque After Dark” podcast series on men’s mental health, the following steps and strategies were suggested for Black men to address their mental health:
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/da-crew-podcast--5763835/support.
- Start with the “first step”: The emphasis is on taking any initial action rather than waiting for a perfect plan for healing, which is described as a non-linear journey.
- Name your pain: Honesty about feelings and experiences accelerates the healing process.
- Practice self-care: Engaging in healthy behaviors such as maintaining a healthy diet, getting adequate sleep, and regular exercise (like joining fitness groups such as Black Men Run) is a key step.
- Explore creative outlets: Activities such as writing, music, visual art, or journaling can serve as a vital way to process emotions and externalize stress.
- Build social connections: Connecting with friends, family, and peers helps reduce isolation and build a strong support system, which can include community group participation or joining support groups.
- Talk to someone safe: This can be a friend, family member, or a professional in a safe, confidential environment.
- Seek professional help: Sometimes self-care alone is not enough, and it is important to consider counseling or therapy without shame.
- Deconstruct the “strong Black man” myth: Recognizing that it is okay to show vulnerability and that pain or issues should not be suppressed helps break the stigma surrounding mental health.
- Balance faith, therapy, and community support: Utilizing a variety of resources available, including spiritual resources, can contribute to overall wellness.
- Pay attention to the body: Physical manifestations of stress, such as tension in the jaw, stomach, and shoulders, are indicators that mental health needs attention.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/da-crew-podcast--5763835/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
No appen farm against me, shame plus space.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In mo.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Nopal f against name, Chell home plus SPA in life,
say a fine form against name, shall plus space.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Hear all lad said.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Against me shall plus spect.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Mine.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
May I have your attention? Please? The show stops in
nice okay seven to six, five four three few fun go.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Hey everybody. This is Black Diamond from Basic Black after
Dark to show that meet you where you are and
gives you exactly what we're as for. Tonight, we're diving
into a conversation that doesn't get nearly enough space in
our community, black men's mental health and how it connects
to physical health, including prostate cancer. A womens Now, I
(01:49):
know you're wondering why I'm talking about black men's mental health. Well,
it affects me too. I have sons, brothers, cousins, and nephews,
and for too long, our men have carried the weight
of the world on their shoulders in silence. Silence has
become the expectation, endurance has become the performance, and break
through emotional or physical to often come only when the
(02:13):
body forces it. Tonight, we're breaking that silence of Basic Blacks,
tuning in on black men's mental health. We're talking statistics, stigma, trauma,
generational patterns, medical mistrust, stress, suicide risk, depression, anxiety, and
(02:34):
the very real health disparities facing our black men. So
we're going to try to cover as much as we
can tonight, and towards the end of the show, we'll
acknowledge a powerful moment of a truth from a beloved
TV icon whose transparency has helped put a spotlight on
this issue. So sit back, rep your tea, on your coffee,
your journal, or your peace, and let's get into it now.
(02:58):
I want to talk about why this e sulk matness.
I think you know that by now, because Black men
are taught to survive, not feel. I'm going to say
it again. Their unhealed trauma needs to stress related illnesses
with mental health and physical health directly connected. The medical
(03:18):
system has historically failed black men, leading to mistrust and
late diagnosis. Black men are taught to survive and not feel.
From childhood. Many are conditioned to be strong, silent, unshakable,
and to push through pain. They're taught to swallow emotions
(03:39):
and never show vulnerability. I understand we want our men
to be strong and unshakable, but that silence comes at
a cost. Unhealed trauma doesn't disappear, It settles into the body,
turn it into stress related illnesses like high blood pressure,
heart disease, things depression, and emotional shutdown. With the mind
(04:05):
tries to ignore, the body eventually expresses. Let's look at
mental health and physical health. They are directly connected. The
weight of unspoken emotions, unprocessed trauma, and constant pressure can
break a man down long before he ever sees a doctor.
And for Black men, that breakdown often goes unnoticed until
(04:27):
it becomes life threatening. And we cannot ignore this truth.
The medical system as historically veiled black men, from mixed
diagnosis to the black to racial biases and healthcare settings.
This history creates deep mistrust, causing many men to delay treatment,
(04:48):
avoid screenings, and wait until pain is unbearable before seeking health.
By then, it's often too late. This episodees matter because
Black men deserve more, more compassion, more understanding, more support,
and more conversations that honor their truth, their struggles, and
(05:09):
their wellness. Tonight, we are creating space for their healing
to begin. The reality is this, black men are struggling
in silence, and the numbers tell a story that our
community can no longer ford to ignore. Black men are
less likely to receive mental health treatment, yet more likely
(05:29):
to experience severe life altering systems and symptoms, not because
they are weaker, but because they are taught to suppress,
to endure, and keep moving even when everything insidence is breaking.
Not into the CDC. Suicide is the third leading cause
(05:50):
of death for Black boys and young men ages fifteen
to twenty four, So we touch on those as well,
because cancer, mental health, it's not prejudice. It strikes the
young as well as the older. That means our sons, nephews, brothers,
and students are leaving this world at rates that share
(06:12):
every one of us. Black men are also four times
more likely to die by suicide than black women. And
I know some of you are sitting back saying how
because they're stronger. This is not because they suffer more,
but because they suffer alone. I want you to sink
in to this one minute. They don't tell anyone they're suffering,
(06:34):
just like they don't ask for directions. Now, when is
the last time you were in the car with your
men and they stop to ask for directions? They don't.
They'll play it off by going into the gas station
saying they got to get some gum, or they got
to get some gas and fill it up. And you
may know, when you see the tanker's early fault, you're
really going in here to ask for directions. Oh. Yes,
they play it off because they're lost. Well, they are
(06:57):
at a significant loss when it comes to getting the
metal help they need. Nearly forty five percent of Black
men report symptoms of anxiety or depression that go untreated.
Almost half half of our men walking around with silent battles,
panic they can't name, sadness they can't voice, and wounds
(07:20):
that never get the chance to heal. And when we
look at trauma, black men are exposed to it at
significantly high rates. Community violence, racial discrimination, police encounters, unstable
or underresourced neighborhoods, childhood trauma, and generational pain. Depressure to
(07:43):
be the man without ever being allowed to be human,
something that was almost stripped from them hundreds of years ago.
Now I'm not going to take us back into that time.
I'm talking about hundreds of years ago and what our
black men and women were stripped up. This constant exposure
creates a storm in the mind and body that man
(08:05):
never talk about because they feel they're not allowed to.
They feel muffled, like there's a gag order on them
that they can't express how they feel or what's wrong
with them. The state of black men in America is
not about weakness. It's about the weight they carry, often silently,
(08:25):
with no outlet, no support system, and no safe space
to fall apart. And this is exactly why conversations like
tonight are not optional. It should be mandated. They are necessary,
They are life saving, and they are overdone. I want
to talk to you just a little bit about some barriers.
(08:47):
I believe these men must seek help. When we talk
about why black men often don't seek support, we must
acknowledge the barriers, not imagine everyone's, but real, live generation
should know obstacles that have shaped the way all men
show up in the world. I shouldn't even have to
guess this one. Nobody should guess this one. And the
(09:09):
first barrier is stigma, that old message we've heard for generation.
Tell men you know where it is real men don't
cry for me. I don't have a problem with my
man crying. You can cry on my shoulder, because that
tells me that he's not alone in them there to
support them. Now, I don't know how many times I
(09:32):
heard that that men. Real men don't cry, Real men
don't ask for help, real men don't break those lies
have silence. Countless Black men who were hurt, grieving, or
overwhelmed were too afraid to be seen as vulnerable. Personally,
I like a vulnerable man. It shows me that he
(09:53):
is real and that he is human. Then there's the
fear of being seen as weak. Well, I only think
that the man is maybe if he can't carry maybe
a TV from one room to the next. Many black
men may grow up believing that showing emotion makes them
less of a man. I have seen it, I've heard it,
and I'm quite sure you have to a lot of fathers. Wow,
(10:25):
they expect it to be the rock, that such a
young age the backbone to protector, even when m town
stays in this house, no younger better than that. Our
fathers learned it from their fathers, and their fathers learned
it from their fathers. Emotional suppression has become a true
(10:55):
fea of job impact. Too many men worried that me
and their struggling could jeopardize their livelihood, their reputation, their
chances of being promoted or the respect they receive at work,
so they toose silence over support. Sometimes they may not
be too silent. Sometimes they may go to the barbershop
(11:16):
and that's where a lot of conversations happen. A lot
of them say, yeah, man, I understand what you mean.
But do they really understand what.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, I went to see a doctor and they told
me some things and I'm looking at him like, you
don't understand. It's a difference. It's a.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Different mm hm hm.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Somebody young to see me now. I remember going to
the dentist. They're just skipping off a little bit, and
you know, you have a young dentist and they're looking
at your teeth. But are they looking at the teeth
of somebody my age and they know about it, or
are they just coming from dential school and they're looking
at what's new out here? Well, these are not new.
These have been with me for years. To do they
(12:36):
under the experience with that could be a barrier, and
it is a lack of cultural responsive therapists. Black men
often can't find providers who understand their experience. Yeah, he
(13:00):
won't open up, he won't even show up. Hey, I'm
so glad that you're here, yea, and you can I
(13:33):
sound a little bit horse so I just apologize for
that and we'll get back to this. I'm just trying
to get my volume to go, all right, I'm ready.
(13:57):
I'm so sorry if I natural barriers that are because
there's insurance gaps, lack of access, and the reality that
too many black men are prioritizing survival, okay, because the
bills won't pay. You got to pay your bills otherwise
some of them may feel that dead on the street.
(14:21):
They have children that they have to feature when they
have to prioritize their families over themselves. But let me
tell you, those bills will still be there when you're going.
And then you're going to be wonder who's going to
pay them bills? Is it going to be your wife,
your children, or your partner, because they're going to go
after them and see if you were here to help them,
then you wouldn't have to worry about that. That's why
(14:41):
it's so important for you to go seek to help.
I understand that it's the cost, but look at what
it's really going to imagine leaving your love with behre
one day that could have actually saved your life. And finally,
we must address misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. In medical settings, Black
(15:06):
men are often not taken seriousness, their symptoms overlooked, their
pain minimized, or the experience misunderstood. This pre I guess
when they're young, because I mean, I'm going to go
(15:30):
back and forth. That was called the family doctor, so
we all knew who had asthma, who had this problem,
who had that problem. But at some point in time,
I believe when my brothers got older, they didn't want
to see the same doctor that the sister was singing
and alto didn't want to see a woman doctor. So
as they got into their young adults, they started slacking.
Sometimes they just probably woul skipped the doctor. Now I
(15:53):
work for a company and we have children who, once
they reached a certain certain age of majority, you set
the appointments for them to go to see their doctors
and dentists and everything else. But if not, so there's
the males that choose not to go. I don't know
(16:14):
whether it's fear, whether it's distrust, or just simply of winds,
but those encounters are going to be harmful as they
get older the These barriers don't just appear over be black.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
M hm, m hm, m hm, and.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
It's just in a vacuum yuring an emotional load and
cultural pressure that many black men carry from the moment
they can walk. Black men are expected to be everything
for everybody, provide us, protectors, leaders, anchors. They expect it
(17:06):
to be the strength, the stability, and the shield without
ever being allowed to lay that burning down. Now I
know you heard the song. I'm not a singing so
I'm not gonna sity and sing it, but I know
that you know that they have been without ever being
allowed to lay that burning down. And the message is
loud and clear. Don't cry, don't break, don't feel handle it,
(17:30):
figure it out. All those words being thrown at them,
How are we expecting them to feel, how we're expecting
them to respond? Any way they respond, somebody's going to
say something negative about some my He's going to have
something to say about And I'm not trying to be racist,
(17:52):
believe me, I'm not. But I deal with the majority
of black males, so I'm only speaking because of who
I'm dealing with. And they could go on and other
coaches too, and other coaches may say the same thing,
and I'm not saying I'm only you're worried about a
(18:12):
black don't worry about anything for toady as far as
(18:59):
the because they're believing that that's the way the man
is supposed to be. So guess what happens. They raise
their sons the same way, so they grow up doing
the same things. Things like fatherhood, identity, and emotional isolation.
That happens, y'all. Don't get me wrong. Even black men
who come from loving, supportive families can struggle with emotional language.
(19:23):
They may love deeply, protect fiercely, and show up consistently,
but still feel isolated inside their own minds. Just imagine
how it feels to be isolated in your own mind.
Just take a moment and think about it. You're the
(19:43):
only one there. Nobody else is around. You're just going
around and around around.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
In your own mind.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
There's no windows, there's no doors, and you're trying to
get out. Well, sometimes that's how isolation feels. Many don't
have the words to describe what they feel, not because
they don't feel it, but because no one ever taught
them how to say. First time or mother will tell
their son something the father's happened to fit. What are
(20:13):
you trying to do? Make them out of a sissy.
Let I'm toughing up. I can tough them up. Let
me take them in a row. What are you gonna
start doing, Punch them in the chest, tossing them around,
trying to make a man out of a boy. He's
a boy. And this is what I say when I
say it's generational, And I'm not faulting the father because
it probably happened to him, so it's generational. Fatherhood adds
(20:35):
another layer. So many black fathers feel the pressure to
always be on to be strong for their children, stable
for their family, stoic and moments that would break anyone else.
You know what, I'm gonna come out of character for
a minute. I can just about tell you that these
(20:56):
black men that I'm talking about, the ones that appear
here to be so strong and appear to be tough
in front of their kids, they take it to bed
with them. Sometimes some of them sit on the side
of the bed and when you think that something is
wrong or that he's just in his feelings, he is
(21:16):
in his feelings. He's in his feelings because he wants
to do better by his son by his family. But
he's struggling because he wasn't taught, so he's trying to
figure it out. Do I teach him how to do
this the way that it should be done, or do
I do it in a way that if my friends
or my buddies or somebody else see it, they're gonna
call me weak? Father adds another layer. They have to
(21:42):
be strong for their children, to stayble for their family.
But beneath that tough exterior, many are exhausted. So when
they come in the house and they telling me they're tired,
they're tired because they're thinking. A minute they get off
of work, they're thinking of what's back at home. And
when they're thinking about what's back at home, how they
have to treat their family, how they have to care
(22:03):
for their family, they don't even have time to be
thinking about themselves emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The impact of
racism and discrimination, and then there's the trauma of simply
being a black man in America. Let's talk about workplace stress,
(22:24):
and I was just hitting on that a few minutes ago.
It's being overlooked, it's being questioned or expected to work
twice as hard for half the recognition. Then there's systemic
bias from education to employment to healthcare. Now I'm going
(22:45):
to mention over policing, the fear that any interaction can
go wrong. I've taught my sons when you're sitting in
the car and you're stopped by police officer, what do
you think the first thing is that you should do?
(23:06):
And they had different opinions of what they should do,
and I told them, no, the first thing that you
are to do is you do take both of your
hands and you put them in the window, right there,
in that front window. And when they tell you to
step out of that car, you step out, and you
just keep sliding your hands laid on that glass window
because it's showing you have no weapon in your hand,
(23:27):
and that your hands was free and your hands was open.
Because if they can't say that you was reaching for something,
they can't say that they thought your cell phone was
a gun. You have two handprints inside of a window.
These are some of the things and it's unfortunate that
we have to teach our sons to do just to
protect themselves. Have you heard of micro aggressions? It's real.
(23:51):
It's those subtle jabs that say you don't belong here,
and it's so unfortunate. Sometimes you even hear it in
your own family that you don't belong head. This isn't hypothetical,
this is daily life, and daily trauma becomes chronic trauma.
And chronic trauma doesn't just hurt the mind, it breaks
(24:13):
down the body. Chronic stress chronic disease. Decades of studies
shows that chronic stress causes physical deterioration, including hot blood pressure,
heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and weakened immune systems. And yes,
(24:36):
even prostate cancer is impacted by chronic stress and inflammation.
When stress hormones stay elevated for years, the body begins
to attack itself, and for Black men, who face some
of the highest levels of race related stress, the risk
of disease skyrockets. This means emotional suffering becomes physical suffware,
(25:01):
and unspoken pain becomes a medical crisis. This emotional load
is not a weakness, it's a warning, a signal that
black men need room to breathe, to rest, to feel,
to talk, and to heal. Because no man should have
to carry the world alone. So women, they can't do
(25:25):
it alone, and they shouldn't. Let's support our black men better. Yet,
let's respect our black men. And speaking of respect, I
have tickets. See how I slip that in there? I
had tickets to see a tribute to Aretha Franklin at
the Gordon sent In Owen Mills, Meryland, and that's for
tomorrow at seven pm. And these tickets were donated by
(25:47):
Pat Johnson Harris. She's the founder of Young Writers Rock
Well Young Writers Challenge. Pat was on our last show
talking about our youth and the Youth Writers' Challenge program.
But since there were any winner, sorry to say, I'm
going to read the trivia question as well and answer
and give you the answer to. So here's the question.
(26:08):
So I want to see who says I thought that
or no, she's wrong and check it. Here's the question.
Which Aretha Franklin album was the first to win a
Grammy Award for Best Female R and B Vocal Performance.
Now this is where I want to know, if you're
(26:28):
paying attention, which Aretha Franklin album was the first to
win a Grammy Award for Best Female R and B
Vocal Performance. Now, how many of you said Respect? I
love the song, but that's not the song. Respect won
(26:51):
her first Grammy, but the album was I never loved
the man the way I love you so so much.
Many people had respect respect respect, and they even spelt
it out Our die dit est and and so on
and so forth. I'm sorry that wasn't it. Well, we're
gonna be doing this again sometime in the future. We're
(27:12):
gonna be doing some trivia questions, so get up on
your trivia. It's not always going to be about Aretha Franklin.
It's going to be about many different things. But let's
get back to what we would talk about Black men's
mental health. We're gonna talk about prostate cancer awareness for
black men. When we talk about prostate cancer, we must
be honest about something the medical system hasn't always explained
(27:35):
it well. Black men are at the highest risk, and
the reasons are layered. For one, it's genetics. There are
genetic markers and hereditary patterns that make prostate cancer more
aggressive than black men. So if a father, uncle, cousin,
(27:56):
or grandfather had it, the risk increases dramatically, just like
it is with women with breast hands. But there's also
the delayed screening. Many black men don't get screened early,
some don't get screened at all, not because they don't care,
but because they're busy surviving, provided for their family, avoiding
(28:19):
long medical rates, or simply unaware of how the early
detection works. There's a lot of healthcare mistrust, and let's
be real, Black men have every reason to mistrust the
healthcare system. There's decades of bias, neglect, misdiagnosis, and medical
(28:40):
racism have consequences. This mistrust leads to delayed care, and
delayed here leads to later stage diagnoses. But it's also
environmental and dietary factors that play a role. Inness food desserts,
high stress environments, limited access to resh produce, and lifestyle
(29:02):
shaped by socioeconomic barriers. They all play a role. Inflammation
from stress and diet can also influence can to growth.
Stress will stress you out. But there's some statistics from
twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five. These numbers tell
the story planing. One in eight men will develop prostate
(29:25):
cancer in their lifetime. For black men, it's one in six.
Black men are twice is likely to die from prostate
cancer compared to other races. When court early prostate cancer
is up to ninety nine percent treated. Now, I said, treatable.
(29:47):
Don't get it confused. We're carible. Early detection is not
just important, it's life saving. You can do screening. They
are screening guidelines the general population. The PS say announcement
blood tests starting at age forty five to fifty and
for black men or anyone with family history, start at
(30:09):
age forty and test every year. Give yourself a birthday gift.
Do it on your birthday. Test every year on your birthday.
This way you won't forget, and it's a gift. When
they tell you that it's all clear. Not every doctor
will mention this, but every black man needs to know it.
(30:31):
There are signs and symptoms, and there's the difficult truth.
Pricetate cancer often has no symptoms in the early stages.
When symptoms do appear, they may include things like frequent urination,
weak urine flow, blood in the urine, discomfort or pressure
(30:53):
in the pelvic area, erectile dysfunction. Don't be embarrassed. Don't
be embarrassed at all because it happens. Go to your
doctor and try to figure it out on what's going on.
But again, and this is critical, most men have zero
symptoms and tell the cancer is advanced That is why
(31:15):
screening is not optional. To tell you the truth, it
should be mandatory. And I know some people say, well,
that's my body. Nobody should mandate me to do anything,
But not for black men. Not with these numbers. Early
testing saved lives. A simple blood test ten minutes once
(31:38):
a year, and it can change your men's entire future.
It can change your family's entire future. This information isn't
fear based, it's empowerment because knowledge gives black men a
fighting chance, and early detection gives them their lives back.
There's a connection between mental health and physical health back.
(32:00):
Did you know that. One of the most important truths
we have to acknowledge is this Mental health and physical
health are not separate. They are two halves of the
same story, especially for black men. For instance, depression doesn't
always look like sadness. So because somebody is said, you
(32:23):
don't have to say that they're depressed, And because they're
depressed doesn't mean that they're sad. For many men, depression
shows up as physical symptoms constant fatigue, aches and pains, headaches,
low motivation, trouble concentrating. These symptoms are real, but they're
(32:45):
often dismissed. As being tired or just stressed when there's
signs of emotional overload. Now I'm guilty of that myself
because some people say something to man, I say, no,
I'm just tired. Well, you know what I said a lot.
I'm just tired, but I know this other thing's going on.
So I've been doing a marathon lately of seeing doctors
(33:05):
running around trying to make sure everything is right, because
I'm gonna tell you, the older you get, the more
you need to look for different things that could be happening,
that could have been happening, and now it's manifested into
something else. So then the anxiety and the body starts
to react. Anxiety isn't just a mental experience. It's physical.
(33:28):
It raises heart rate, increases blood pressure, disrupts sleep, and
it keeps the body in a constant state of alertness.
For black men, who already face higher risk of hypertension,
this combination can be dangerous. Like suppressed emotion, information information
(33:48):
is dangerous. You may think, oh, just my ankles are swollen,
Oh just my hand is just tight. You're giving yourself
a diagnosis. And I'm not saying that. You're not a doctor,
you should know your body better, but your body is
telling you something at the same time. When emotions are
swallowed instead of express the body pays the price. Expressing anger, grief, fear,
(34:14):
or stress leads to inflammation. That's the root of many diseases.
Inflammation contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, and even
prostate cancer progression. Now I know there's a fear of diagnosis.
Many black men avoid doctors, not because they don't care,
(34:35):
but because they're afraid of what they'll hear or would
you want to hear something like where you only got
two months to live when ten months ago you could
have win. Ten years ago you could have win. You
could have been doing it every year. The fear of
a diagnosis, it can be paralyzing. But the reality of
(34:57):
this is avoiding the doctor does not the diagnosis and
only delays treatment and reduces survival chances. There are past trauma,
medical mistrust, and generations of racism and medicine that have
built walls of mistrust. Sometimes we hear our ancestors telling us, oh,
(35:18):
don't go to their doctor. All you need is desk.
You know those homemade remedies. Now, some of them do work,
like the onions and socks, so when they turn brown
and a pair of white socks, the fever broke. But
I wouldn't tell you to go do that and think
that you're not going to have prostate cancer. I'm telling
you to go to the doctor. Many black men have
had their pain dismissed, their symptoms ignored, or their concerns minimized.
(35:44):
I've seen it sometimes, and when I'm in the doctor's work,
it's not just shake my head. Sometimes I just want
to get up and say, look, this is an older gentleman.
He may not know or maybe he's afraid, but that's
what they have those So that's what the doctor should
be doing, you know, letting them know that I understand
(36:04):
that it may be a little difficult, or it may
be a little strange right now, or how could I
help you? Maybe that's what they need to hear. These
experiences create a real psychological barrier to seeking help. But
here's the truth. We must speak clearly and compassionately. You
cannot heal a body while ignoring a mind, and you
(36:27):
cannot heal a mind while neglecting the body. They work together,
they break down together, and they must be kid for
together ment to well separate the two. We may not
(36:56):
watch the same shows with the TV and media presentations
in real life. And one of the most unexpected places
where a whenness begins it is television. We'll watch well,
I won't watch it because I'm not into football, but
we'll watch the super Bowl. And then there's those little
commercials and the dances and the singers and the rappers
(37:16):
and everything else that's going on up in there, and
we get up and we walk away. But in between
all of that, that's important information that comes on because
you done walk away and got your beer, got your
whole gee, got whatever it is that makes you feel
like you want to eat. But a whenness begins with
the television. Sometimes shows like one of my favorites, Gray's Anatomy,
(37:39):
It reached millions of people every week. Don't tell me, oh,
that's just when those doctor shows, they have consultants, and
one of those people on is actually a nurse. She's
always in the operating room. She's actually a nurse. And
sometimes they open conversations that our real lives never make
room for. For many black men, these conversations don't happen
(38:03):
at home, they don't happen at work, they don't even
happen with their closest friends. Talking about fear, health, trauma,
or emotions often feels off limits, so the silence continues,
the stigma continues, and the suffering that also continues. But
(38:27):
then a storyline appears on the show. It's something that
you may watch, or something that your friend may be watching,
maybe casually, maybe with their partner, maybe just flipping channels,
and suddenly the topic is right there in front of them.
A storyline makes space, It becomes a safe entry point.
It's a mirror, a moment of recognition. Because sometimes a
(38:51):
man won't say I'm scared, but he will say that
episode really hit home. Ladies, when you hear him say
that something's going on, but he's just not telling me.
Don't push, just be there for that's how the conversation begins.
Representation matters not just while children, but for grown black
(39:13):
men who have never seen their stories, their fears, or
their struggles reflected with truth and empathy. Just think about that.
Say it to yourself, black men and empathy. What do
you think is going on there when you hear black
men and empathy? Doesn't happen too often?
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Do it?
Speaker 1 (39:35):
When television shows portray black men dealing with mental health challenges,
medical trauma, or early cancer detection. It helps normalize the conversation.
It reduces the stigma, It opens the door. Shows like
Gray's Anatomy just don't entertain, They educate. They spark dialogue,
(39:58):
raise awareness, and plants seeds that grow into real change. Now,
there was an episode and that was with It was
a young man that was on there and he had
to have surgery and he had to have a penal extortion.
(40:22):
I would say, and I'm gonna tell you, I was
kind of surprised when I heard about it, But then
when they asked the question, when Debbie Allen asked the question, well,
that's what she really is, but that's not how character
on the show who wanted to join her to girl
those hands and went up to students. I wish I
could have threw my hand up because I wanted to.
It's not that I wanted to see I just wanted
(40:43):
to know how it was done well. Tonight's episode on
Basic Black After Darkness, one of those conversations made possible
because someone in the media chose to shine a light.
And the more we see our stories represented, the more
our men feel scene and the more our community begins
to heal. There's transparency, this storytelling, and this hope. As
(41:08):
we talk about representation and the power of media, there's
a moment we must acknowledge, a moment that didn't just
play out on the screen, but resonated in real life.
On Gray's Anatomy, a recent storyline opened the door for
deeper dialogue about black men in prostate cancer. It wasn't sensationalized,
(41:29):
it wasn't exaggerated. It was honest, vulnerable, and grounded in
the reality that far too many of our men facing silence.
But what made this moment even more powerful is what
happened off screen. The actor behind the character showed courage
(41:50):
far beyond the script, far beyond the character, and far
beyond the role he was portraying. He was real. He
was talking to you about something personal, something that he
has been dealing with. He shared his own personal medical journey,
not for sympathy, not Fourklaus, but to raise awareness and
(42:11):
save lives. He used his platform to speak truth to you.
He used his story to encourage early testing, to break stigma,
and to remind black men that their health matters just
as much as everyone else's. His vulnerability became a PSA,
his transparency became a lifeline, and his bravery became a
(42:36):
conversation starter, including the one we're having right now. I
fliped through those channels where I watched the show anyway,
and I was surprised and I was proud. So tonight,
with deep gratitude and respect, thank you, James Pickens Junior,
for your transparency, your courage, and for using your platform
(43:01):
to help save lives in our community. Your voice, madness,
your story matters, and because you spoke up, countless black
men may choose to get checked, take their health seriously
and stay alive. Now there's resources like the Mental Health
Support for Black Men, black Menheal dot org, stevefun dot org,
(43:29):
Nomi dot org that can help you with mental health.
And for prostincancer, there's Black Healthmatters dot com, Prostatecancer Foundation
at PCF dot org. And then there's always the CDC
dot gov, backslash Cancer, backslash prostect. When the CDC, you
can find just about everything that is that you want
(43:50):
to talk about when it comes to either mental illness,
illness or something. Then there's the Crisis Resources None eight
eight suicide and crisis Lifeline. You can text the word
home to seven four one, seven four one for the
crisis text line. This has been another powerful episode of
(44:14):
Basic Black After Dark And to every black man listening,
your life matters, your health matness, your emotions matter, your
stories matter. You don't have to carry the world alone.
You don't have to suffer in silence, and you don't
have to wait to get help mentally or physically. Tonight
(44:37):
we honor the courage it takes for a man to
admit I need support, I need to check up, I
need someone to talk to. And again, especially thank you
to James Pickins Junior for using both his art and
It's truth to raise awareness. So make sure you follow, subscribe,
(44:58):
and share this episode with a black man you love.
Even if you don't love him, you just don't like him,
you have to be in love with him. You can
like him. Could be a distant relative, it's a male,
could be your neighbor something. Tell them to just watch
this episode and they can also better. Yet, they can
do the rerun. Now I'm not getting paid for this,
I'm just saying it. They can do the rerun on
(45:21):
that episode of Rai's Anatomy, I think it was maybe
about three months ago, but it's the holiday do a marathon.
You'll eventually see it. It's one of the newer episodes,
so you have to make sure that you follow, subscribe,
and share this episode with that black man Dag. Did
I say that right? I meant it. Distinguished Author's Guild
(45:46):
Award Winness will be joining me on the next episode
of Basic Black after Dark on Friday, December to nineteenth
at eight pm, and I can't wait to speak to
those winuites. This is Black Diamond and as always, thanks
for keeping it Basic. Good Night,
No appen farm against me, shame plus space.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In mo.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Nopal f against name, Chell home plus SPA in life,
say a fine form against name, shall plus space.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Hear all lad said.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Against me shall plus spect.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Mine.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
May I have your attention? Please? The show stops in
nice okay seven to six, five four three few fun go.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Hey everybody. This is Black Diamond from Basic Black after
Dark to show that meet you where you are and
gives you exactly what we're as for. Tonight, we're diving
into a conversation that doesn't get nearly enough space in
our community, black men's mental health and how it connects
to physical health, including prostate cancer. A womens Now, I
(01:49):
know you're wondering why I'm talking about black men's mental health. Well,
it affects me too. I have sons, brothers, cousins, and nephews,
and for too long, our men have carried the weight
of the world on their shoulders in silence. Silence has
become the expectation, endurance has become the performance, and break
through emotional or physical to often come only when the
(02:13):
body forces it. Tonight, we're breaking that silence of Basic Blacks,
tuning in on black men's mental health. We're talking statistics, stigma, trauma,
generational patterns, medical mistrust, stress, suicide risk, depression, anxiety, and
(02:34):
the very real health disparities facing our black men. So
we're going to try to cover as much as we
can tonight, and towards the end of the show, we'll
acknowledge a powerful moment of a truth from a beloved
TV icon whose transparency has helped put a spotlight on
this issue. So sit back, rep your tea, on your coffee,
your journal, or your peace, and let's get into it now.
(02:58):
I want to talk about why this e sulk matness.
I think you know that by now, because Black men
are taught to survive, not feel. I'm going to say
it again. Their unhealed trauma needs to stress related illnesses
with mental health and physical health directly connected. The medical
(03:18):
system has historically failed black men, leading to mistrust and
late diagnosis. Black men are taught to survive and not feel.
From childhood. Many are conditioned to be strong, silent, unshakable,
and to push through pain. They're taught to swallow emotions
(03:39):
and never show vulnerability. I understand we want our men
to be strong and unshakable, but that silence comes at
a cost. Unhealed trauma doesn't disappear, It settles into the body,
turn it into stress related illnesses like high blood pressure,
heart disease, things depression, and emotional shutdown. With the mind
(04:05):
tries to ignore, the body eventually expresses. Let's look at
mental health and physical health. They are directly connected. The
weight of unspoken emotions, unprocessed trauma, and constant pressure can
break a man down long before he ever sees a doctor.
And for Black men, that breakdown often goes unnoticed until
(04:27):
it becomes life threatening. And we cannot ignore this truth.
The medical system as historically veiled black men, from mixed
diagnosis to the black to racial biases and healthcare settings.
This history creates deep mistrust, causing many men to delay treatment,
(04:48):
avoid screenings, and wait until pain is unbearable before seeking health.
By then, it's often too late. This episodees matter because
Black men deserve more, more compassion, more understanding, more support,
and more conversations that honor their truth, their struggles, and
(05:09):
their wellness. Tonight, we are creating space for their healing
to begin. The reality is this, black men are struggling
in silence, and the numbers tell a story that our
community can no longer ford to ignore. Black men are
less likely to receive mental health treatment, yet more likely
(05:29):
to experience severe life altering systems and symptoms, not because
they are weaker, but because they are taught to suppress,
to endure, and keep moving even when everything insidence is breaking.
Not into the CDC. Suicide is the third leading cause
(05:50):
of death for Black boys and young men ages fifteen
to twenty four, So we touch on those as well,
because cancer, mental health, it's not prejudice. It strikes the
young as well as the older. That means our sons, nephews, brothers,
and students are leaving this world at rates that share
(06:12):
every one of us. Black men are also four times
more likely to die by suicide than black women. And
I know some of you are sitting back saying how
because they're stronger. This is not because they suffer more,
but because they suffer alone. I want you to sink
in to this one minute. They don't tell anyone they're suffering,
(06:34):
just like they don't ask for directions. Now, when is
the last time you were in the car with your
men and they stop to ask for directions? They don't.
They'll play it off by going into the gas station
saying they got to get some gum, or they got
to get some gas and fill it up. And you
may know, when you see the tanker's early fault, you're
really going in here to ask for directions. Oh. Yes,
they play it off because they're lost. Well, they are
(06:57):
at a significant loss when it comes to getting the
metal help they need. Nearly forty five percent of Black
men report symptoms of anxiety or depression that go untreated.
Almost half half of our men walking around with silent battles,
panic they can't name, sadness they can't voice, and wounds
(07:20):
that never get the chance to heal. And when we
look at trauma, black men are exposed to it at
significantly high rates. Community violence, racial discrimination, police encounters, unstable
or underresourced neighborhoods, childhood trauma, and generational pain. Depressure to
(07:43):
be the man without ever being allowed to be human,
something that was almost stripped from them hundreds of years ago.
Now I'm not going to take us back into that time.
I'm talking about hundreds of years ago and what our
black men and women were stripped up. This constant exposure
creates a storm in the mind and body that man
(08:05):
never talk about because they feel they're not allowed to.
They feel muffled, like there's a gag order on them
that they can't express how they feel or what's wrong
with them. The state of black men in America is
not about weakness. It's about the weight they carry, often silently,
(08:25):
with no outlet, no support system, and no safe space
to fall apart. And this is exactly why conversations like
tonight are not optional. It should be mandated. They are necessary,
They are life saving, and they are overdone. I want
to talk to you just a little bit about some barriers.
(08:47):
I believe these men must seek help. When we talk
about why black men often don't seek support, we must
acknowledge the barriers, not imagine everyone's, but real, live generation
should know obstacles that have shaped the way all men
show up in the world. I shouldn't even have to
guess this one. Nobody should guess this one. And the
(09:09):
first barrier is stigma, that old message we've heard for generation.
Tell men you know where it is real men don't
cry for me. I don't have a problem with my
man crying. You can cry on my shoulder, because that
tells me that he's not alone in them there to
support them. Now, I don't know how many times I
(09:32):
heard that that men. Real men don't cry, Real men
don't ask for help, real men don't break those lies
have silence. Countless Black men who were hurt, grieving, or
overwhelmed were too afraid to be seen as vulnerable. Personally,
I like a vulnerable man. It shows me that he
(09:53):
is real and that he is human. Then there's the
fear of being seen as weak. Well, I only think
that the man is maybe if he can't carry maybe
a TV from one room to the next. Many black
men may grow up believing that showing emotion makes them
less of a man. I have seen it, I've heard it,
and I'm quite sure you have to a lot of fathers. Wow,
(10:25):
they expect it to be the rock, that such a
young age the backbone to protector, even when m town
stays in this house, no younger better than that. Our
fathers learned it from their fathers, and their fathers learned
it from their fathers. Emotional suppression has become a true
(10:55):
fea of job impact. Too many men worried that me
and their struggling could jeopardize their livelihood, their reputation, their
chances of being promoted or the respect they receive at work,
so they toose silence over support. Sometimes they may not
be too silent. Sometimes they may go to the barbershop
(11:16):
and that's where a lot of conversations happen. A lot
of them say, yeah, man, I understand what you mean.
But do they really understand what.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah, I went to see a doctor and they told
me some things and I'm looking at him like, you
don't understand. It's a difference. It's a.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Different mm hm hm.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
Somebody young to see me now. I remember going to
the dentist. They're just skipping off a little bit, and
you know, you have a young dentist and they're looking
at your teeth. But are they looking at the teeth
of somebody my age and they know about it, or
are they just coming from dential school and they're looking
at what's new out here? Well, these are not new.
These have been with me for years. To do they
(12:36):
under the experience with that could be a barrier, and
it is a lack of cultural responsive therapists. Black men
often can't find providers who understand their experience. Yeah, he
(13:00):
won't open up, he won't even show up. Hey, I'm
so glad that you're here, yea, and you can I
(13:33):
sound a little bit horse so I just apologize for
that and we'll get back to this. I'm just trying
to get my volume to go, all right, I'm ready.
(13:57):
I'm so sorry if I natural barriers that are because
there's insurance gaps, lack of access, and the reality that
too many black men are prioritizing survival, okay, because the
bills won't pay. You got to pay your bills otherwise
some of them may feel that dead on the street.
(14:21):
They have children that they have to feature when they
have to prioritize their families over themselves. But let me
tell you, those bills will still be there when you're going.
And then you're going to be wonder who's going to
pay them bills? Is it going to be your wife,
your children, or your partner, because they're going to go
after them and see if you were here to help them,
then you wouldn't have to worry about that. That's why
(14:41):
it's so important for you to go seek to help.
I understand that it's the cost, but look at what
it's really going to imagine leaving your love with behre
one day that could have actually saved your life. And finally,
we must address misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. In medical settings, Black
(15:06):
men are often not taken seriousness, their symptoms overlooked, their
pain minimized, or the experience misunderstood. This pre I guess
when they're young, because I mean, I'm going to go
(15:30):
back and forth. That was called the family doctor, so
we all knew who had asthma, who had this problem,
who had that problem. But at some point in time,
I believe when my brothers got older, they didn't want
to see the same doctor that the sister was singing
and alto didn't want to see a woman doctor. So
as they got into their young adults, they started slacking.
Sometimes they just probably woul skipped the doctor. Now I
(15:53):
work for a company and we have children who, once
they reached a certain certain age of majority, you set
the appointments for them to go to see their doctors
and dentists and everything else. But if not, so there's
the males that choose not to go. I don't know
(16:14):
whether it's fear, whether it's distrust, or just simply of winds,
but those encounters are going to be harmful as they
get older the These barriers don't just appear over be black.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
M hm, m hm, m hm, and.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
It's just in a vacuum yuring an emotional load and
cultural pressure that many black men carry from the moment
they can walk. Black men are expected to be everything
for everybody, provide us, protectors, leaders, anchors. They expect it
(17:06):
to be the strength, the stability, and the shield without
ever being allowed to lay that burning down. Now I
know you heard the song. I'm not a singing so
I'm not gonna sity and sing it, but I know
that you know that they have been without ever being
allowed to lay that burning down. And the message is
loud and clear. Don't cry, don't break, don't feel handle it,
(17:30):
figure it out. All those words being thrown at them,
How are we expecting them to feel, how we're expecting
them to respond? Any way they respond, somebody's going to
say something negative about some my He's going to have
something to say about And I'm not trying to be racist,
(17:52):
believe me, I'm not. But I deal with the majority
of black males, so I'm only speaking because of who
I'm dealing with. And they could go on and other
coaches too, and other coaches may say the same thing,
and I'm not saying I'm only you're worried about a
(18:12):
black don't worry about anything for toady as far as
(18:59):
the because they're believing that that's the way the man
is supposed to be. So guess what happens. They raise
their sons the same way, so they grow up doing
the same things. Things like fatherhood, identity, and emotional isolation.
That happens, y'all. Don't get me wrong. Even black men
who come from loving, supportive families can struggle with emotional language.
(19:23):
They may love deeply, protect fiercely, and show up consistently,
but still feel isolated inside their own minds. Just imagine
how it feels to be isolated in your own mind.
Just take a moment and think about it. You're the
(19:43):
only one there. Nobody else is around. You're just going
around and around around.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
In your own mind.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
There's no windows, there's no doors, and you're trying to
get out. Well, sometimes that's how isolation feels. Many don't
have the words to describe what they feel, not because
they don't feel it, but because no one ever taught
them how to say. First time or mother will tell
their son something the father's happened to fit. What are
(20:13):
you trying to do? Make them out of a sissy.
Let I'm toughing up. I can tough them up. Let
me take them in a row. What are you gonna
start doing, Punch them in the chest, tossing them around,
trying to make a man out of a boy. He's
a boy. And this is what I say when I
say it's generational, And I'm not faulting the father because
it probably happened to him, so it's generational. Fatherhood adds
(20:35):
another layer. So many black fathers feel the pressure to
always be on to be strong for their children, stable
for their family, stoic and moments that would break anyone else.
You know what, I'm gonna come out of character for
a minute. I can just about tell you that these
(20:56):
black men that I'm talking about, the ones that appear
here to be so strong and appear to be tough
in front of their kids, they take it to bed
with them. Sometimes some of them sit on the side
of the bed and when you think that something is
wrong or that he's just in his feelings, he is
(21:16):
in his feelings. He's in his feelings because he wants
to do better by his son by his family. But
he's struggling because he wasn't taught, so he's trying to
figure it out. Do I teach him how to do
this the way that it should be done, or do
I do it in a way that if my friends
or my buddies or somebody else see it, they're gonna
call me weak? Father adds another layer. They have to
(21:42):
be strong for their children, to stayble for their family.
But beneath that tough exterior, many are exhausted. So when
they come in the house and they telling me they're tired,
they're tired because they're thinking. A minute they get off
of work, they're thinking of what's back at home. And
when they're thinking about what's back at home, how they
have to treat their family, how they have to care
(22:03):
for their family, they don't even have time to be
thinking about themselves emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The impact of
racism and discrimination, and then there's the trauma of simply
being a black man in America. Let's talk about workplace stress,
(22:24):
and I was just hitting on that a few minutes ago.
It's being overlooked, it's being questioned or expected to work
twice as hard for half the recognition. Then there's systemic
bias from education to employment to healthcare. Now I'm going
(22:45):
to mention over policing, the fear that any interaction can
go wrong. I've taught my sons when you're sitting in
the car and you're stopped by police officer, what do
you think the first thing is that you should do?
(23:06):
And they had different opinions of what they should do,
and I told them, no, the first thing that you
are to do is you do take both of your
hands and you put them in the window, right there,
in that front window. And when they tell you to
step out of that car, you step out, and you
just keep sliding your hands laid on that glass window
because it's showing you have no weapon in your hand,
(23:27):
and that your hands was free and your hands was open.
Because if they can't say that you was reaching for something,
they can't say that they thought your cell phone was
a gun. You have two handprints inside of a window.
These are some of the things and it's unfortunate that
we have to teach our sons to do just to
protect themselves. Have you heard of micro aggressions? It's real.
(23:51):
It's those subtle jabs that say you don't belong here,
and it's so unfortunate. Sometimes you even hear it in
your own family that you don't belong head. This isn't hypothetical,
this is daily life, and daily trauma becomes chronic trauma.
And chronic trauma doesn't just hurt the mind, it breaks
(24:13):
down the body. Chronic stress chronic disease. Decades of studies
shows that chronic stress causes physical deterioration, including hot blood pressure,
heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and weakened immune systems. And yes,
(24:36):
even prostate cancer is impacted by chronic stress and inflammation.
When stress hormones stay elevated for years, the body begins
to attack itself, and for Black men, who face some
of the highest levels of race related stress, the risk
of disease skyrockets. This means emotional suffering becomes physical suffware,
(25:01):
and unspoken pain becomes a medical crisis. This emotional load
is not a weakness, it's a warning, a signal that
black men need room to breathe, to rest, to feel,
to talk, and to heal. Because no man should have
to carry the world alone. So women, they can't do
(25:25):
it alone, and they shouldn't. Let's support our black men better. Yet,
let's respect our black men. And speaking of respect, I
have tickets. See how I slip that in there? I
had tickets to see a tribute to Aretha Franklin at
the Gordon sent In Owen Mills, Meryland, and that's for
tomorrow at seven pm. And these tickets were donated by
(25:47):
Pat Johnson Harris. She's the founder of Young Writers Rock
Well Young Writers Challenge. Pat was on our last show
talking about our youth and the Youth Writers' Challenge program.
But since there were any winner, sorry to say, I'm
going to read the trivia question as well and answer
and give you the answer to. So here's the question.
(26:08):
So I want to see who says I thought that
or no, she's wrong and check it. Here's the question.
Which Aretha Franklin album was the first to win a
Grammy Award for Best Female R and B Vocal Performance.
Now this is where I want to know, if you're
(26:28):
paying attention, which Aretha Franklin album was the first to
win a Grammy Award for Best Female R and B
Vocal Performance. Now, how many of you said Respect? I
love the song, but that's not the song. Respect won
(26:51):
her first Grammy, but the album was I never loved
the man the way I love you so so much.
Many people had respect respect respect, and they even spelt
it out Our die dit est and and so on
and so forth. I'm sorry that wasn't it. Well, we're
gonna be doing this again sometime in the future. We're
(27:12):
gonna be doing some trivia questions, so get up on
your trivia. It's not always going to be about Aretha Franklin.
It's going to be about many different things. But let's
get back to what we would talk about Black men's
mental health. We're gonna talk about prostate cancer awareness for
black men. When we talk about prostate cancer, we must
be honest about something the medical system hasn't always explained
(27:35):
it well. Black men are at the highest risk, and
the reasons are layered. For one, it's genetics. There are
genetic markers and hereditary patterns that make prostate cancer more
aggressive than black men. So if a father, uncle, cousin,
(27:56):
or grandfather had it, the risk increases dramatically, just like
it is with women with breast hands. But there's also
the delayed screening. Many black men don't get screened early,
some don't get screened at all, not because they don't care,
but because they're busy surviving, provided for their family, avoiding
(28:19):
long medical rates, or simply unaware of how the early
detection works. There's a lot of healthcare mistrust, and let's
be real, Black men have every reason to mistrust the
healthcare system. There's decades of bias, neglect, misdiagnosis, and medical
(28:40):
racism have consequences. This mistrust leads to delayed care, and
delayed here leads to later stage diagnoses. But it's also
environmental and dietary factors that play a role. Inness food desserts,
high stress environments, limited access to resh produce, and lifestyle
(29:02):
shaped by socioeconomic barriers. They all play a role. Inflammation
from stress and diet can also influence can to growth.
Stress will stress you out. But there's some statistics from
twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five. These numbers tell
the story planing. One in eight men will develop prostate
(29:25):
cancer in their lifetime. For black men, it's one in six.
Black men are twice is likely to die from prostate
cancer compared to other races. When court early prostate cancer
is up to ninety nine percent treated. Now, I said, treatable.
(29:47):
Don't get it confused. We're carible. Early detection is not
just important, it's life saving. You can do screening. They
are screening guidelines the general population. The PS say announcement
blood tests starting at age forty five to fifty and
for black men or anyone with family history, start at
(30:09):
age forty and test every year. Give yourself a birthday gift.
Do it on your birthday. Test every year on your birthday.
This way you won't forget, and it's a gift. When
they tell you that it's all clear. Not every doctor
will mention this, but every black man needs to know it.
(30:31):
There are signs and symptoms, and there's the difficult truth.
Pricetate cancer often has no symptoms in the early stages.
When symptoms do appear, they may include things like frequent urination,
weak urine flow, blood in the urine, discomfort or pressure
(30:53):
in the pelvic area, erectile dysfunction. Don't be embarrassed. Don't
be embarrassed at all because it happens. Go to your
doctor and try to figure it out on what's going on.
But again, and this is critical, most men have zero
symptoms and tell the cancer is advanced That is why
(31:15):
screening is not optional. To tell you the truth, it
should be mandatory. And I know some people say, well,
that's my body. Nobody should mandate me to do anything,
But not for black men. Not with these numbers. Early
testing saved lives. A simple blood test ten minutes once
(31:38):
a year, and it can change your men's entire future.
It can change your family's entire future. This information isn't
fear based, it's empowerment because knowledge gives black men a
fighting chance, and early detection gives them their lives back.
There's a connection between mental health and physical health back.
(32:00):
Did you know that. One of the most important truths
we have to acknowledge is this Mental health and physical
health are not separate. They are two halves of the
same story, especially for black men. For instance, depression doesn't
always look like sadness. So because somebody is said, you
(32:23):
don't have to say that they're depressed, And because they're
depressed doesn't mean that they're sad. For many men, depression
shows up as physical symptoms constant fatigue, aches and pains, headaches,
low motivation, trouble concentrating. These symptoms are real, but they're
(32:45):
often dismissed. As being tired or just stressed when there's
signs of emotional overload. Now I'm guilty of that myself
because some people say something to man, I say, no,
I'm just tired. Well, you know what I said a lot.
I'm just tired, but I know this other thing's going on.
So I've been doing a marathon lately of seeing doctors
(33:05):
running around trying to make sure everything is right, because
I'm gonna tell you, the older you get, the more
you need to look for different things that could be happening,
that could have been happening, and now it's manifested into
something else. So then the anxiety and the body starts
to react. Anxiety isn't just a mental experience. It's physical.
(33:28):
It raises heart rate, increases blood pressure, disrupts sleep, and
it keeps the body in a constant state of alertness.
For black men, who already face higher risk of hypertension,
this combination can be dangerous. Like suppressed emotion, information information
(33:48):
is dangerous. You may think, oh, just my ankles are swollen,
Oh just my hand is just tight. You're giving yourself
a diagnosis. And I'm not saying that. You're not a doctor,
you should know your body better, but your body is
telling you something at the same time. When emotions are
swallowed instead of express the body pays the price. Expressing anger, grief, fear,
(34:14):
or stress leads to inflammation. That's the root of many diseases.
Inflammation contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, and even
prostate cancer progression. Now I know there's a fear of diagnosis.
Many black men avoid doctors, not because they don't care,
(34:35):
but because they're afraid of what they'll hear or would
you want to hear something like where you only got
two months to live when ten months ago you could
have win. Ten years ago you could have win. You
could have been doing it every year. The fear of
a diagnosis, it can be paralyzing. But the reality of
(34:57):
this is avoiding the doctor does not the diagnosis and
only delays treatment and reduces survival chances. There are past trauma,
medical mistrust, and generations of racism and medicine that have
built walls of mistrust. Sometimes we hear our ancestors telling us, oh,
(35:18):
don't go to their doctor. All you need is desk.
You know those homemade remedies. Now, some of them do work,
like the onions and socks, so when they turn brown
and a pair of white socks, the fever broke. But
I wouldn't tell you to go do that and think
that you're not going to have prostate cancer. I'm telling
you to go to the doctor. Many black men have
had their pain dismissed, their symptoms ignored, or their concerns minimized.
(35:44):
I've seen it sometimes, and when I'm in the doctor's work,
it's not just shake my head. Sometimes I just want
to get up and say, look, this is an older gentleman.
He may not know or maybe he's afraid, but that's
what they have those So that's what the doctor should
be doing, you know, letting them know that I understand
(36:04):
that it may be a little difficult, or it may
be a little strange right now, or how could I
help you? Maybe that's what they need to hear. These
experiences create a real psychological barrier to seeking help. But
here's the truth. We must speak clearly and compassionately. You
cannot heal a body while ignoring a mind, and you
(36:27):
cannot heal a mind while neglecting the body. They work together,
they break down together, and they must be kid for
together ment to well separate the two. We may not
(36:56):
watch the same shows with the TV and media presentations
in real life. And one of the most unexpected places
where a whenness begins it is television. We'll watch well,
I won't watch it because I'm not into football, but
we'll watch the super Bowl. And then there's those little
commercials and the dances and the singers and the rappers
(37:16):
and everything else that's going on up in there, and
we get up and we walk away. But in between
all of that, that's important information that comes on because
you done walk away and got your beer, got your
whole gee, got whatever it is that makes you feel
like you want to eat. But a whenness begins with
the television. Sometimes shows like one of my favorites, Gray's Anatomy,
(37:39):
It reached millions of people every week. Don't tell me, oh,
that's just when those doctor shows, they have consultants, and
one of those people on is actually a nurse. She's
always in the operating room. She's actually a nurse. And
sometimes they open conversations that our real lives never make
room for. For many black men, these conversations don't happen
(38:03):
at home, they don't happen at work, they don't even
happen with their closest friends. Talking about fear, health, trauma,
or emotions often feels off limits, so the silence continues,
the stigma continues, and the suffering that also continues. But
(38:27):
then a storyline appears on the show. It's something that
you may watch, or something that your friend may be watching,
maybe casually, maybe with their partner, maybe just flipping channels,
and suddenly the topic is right there in front of them.
A storyline makes space, It becomes a safe entry point.
It's a mirror, a moment of recognition. Because sometimes a
(38:51):
man won't say I'm scared, but he will say that
episode really hit home. Ladies, when you hear him say
that something's going on, but he's just not telling me.
Don't push, just be there for that's how the conversation begins.
Representation matters not just while children, but for grown black
(39:13):
men who have never seen their stories, their fears, or
their struggles reflected with truth and empathy. Just think about that.
Say it to yourself, black men and empathy. What do
you think is going on there when you hear black
men and empathy? Doesn't happen too often?
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Do it?
Speaker 1 (39:35):
When television shows portray black men dealing with mental health challenges,
medical trauma, or early cancer detection. It helps normalize the conversation.
It reduces the stigma, It opens the door. Shows like
Gray's Anatomy just don't entertain, They educate. They spark dialogue,
(39:58):
raise awareness, and plants seeds that grow into real change. Now,
there was an episode and that was with It was
a young man that was on there and he had
to have surgery and he had to have a penal extortion.
(40:22):
I would say, and I'm gonna tell you, I was
kind of surprised when I heard about it, But then
when they asked the question, when Debbie Allen asked the question, well,
that's what she really is, but that's not how character
on the show who wanted to join her to girl
those hands and went up to students. I wish I
could have threw my hand up because I wanted to.
It's not that I wanted to see I just wanted
(40:43):
to know how it was done well. Tonight's episode on
Basic Black After Darkness, one of those conversations made possible
because someone in the media chose to shine a light.
And the more we see our stories represented, the more
our men feel scene and the more our community begins
to heal. There's transparency, this storytelling, and this hope. As
(41:08):
we talk about representation and the power of media, there's
a moment we must acknowledge, a moment that didn't just
play out on the screen, but resonated in real life.
On Gray's Anatomy, a recent storyline opened the door for
deeper dialogue about black men in prostate cancer. It wasn't sensationalized,
(41:29):
it wasn't exaggerated. It was honest, vulnerable, and grounded in
the reality that far too many of our men facing silence.
But what made this moment even more powerful is what
happened off screen. The actor behind the character showed courage
(41:50):
far beyond the script, far beyond the character, and far
beyond the role he was portraying. He was real. He
was talking to you about something personal, something that he
has been dealing with. He shared his own personal medical journey,
not for sympathy, not Fourklaus, but to raise awareness and
(42:11):
save lives. He used his platform to speak truth to you.
He used his story to encourage early testing, to break stigma,
and to remind black men that their health matters just
as much as everyone else's. His vulnerability became a PSA,
his transparency became a lifeline, and his bravery became a
(42:36):
conversation starter, including the one we're having right now. I
fliped through those channels where I watched the show anyway,
and I was surprised and I was proud. So tonight,
with deep gratitude and respect, thank you, James Pickens Junior,
for your transparency, your courage, and for using your platform
(43:01):
to help save lives in our community. Your voice, madness,
your story matters, and because you spoke up, countless black
men may choose to get checked, take their health seriously
and stay alive. Now there's resources like the Mental Health
Support for Black Men, black Menheal dot org, stevefun dot org,
(43:29):
Nomi dot org that can help you with mental health.
And for prostincancer, there's Black Healthmatters dot com, Prostatecancer Foundation
at PCF dot org. And then there's always the CDC
dot gov, backslash Cancer, backslash prostect. When the CDC, you
can find just about everything that is that you want
(43:50):
to talk about when it comes to either mental illness,
illness or something. Then there's the Crisis Resources None eight
eight suicide and crisis Lifeline. You can text the word
home to seven four one, seven four one for the
crisis text line. This has been another powerful episode of
(44:14):
Basic Black After Dark And to every black man listening,
your life matters, your health matness, your emotions matter, your
stories matter. You don't have to carry the world alone.
You don't have to suffer in silence, and you don't
have to wait to get help mentally or physically. Tonight
(44:37):
we honor the courage it takes for a man to
admit I need support, I need to check up, I
need someone to talk to. And again, especially thank you
to James Pickins Junior for using both his art and
It's truth to raise awareness. So make sure you follow, subscribe,
(44:58):
and share this episode with a black man you love.
Even if you don't love him, you just don't like him,
you have to be in love with him. You can
like him. Could be a distant relative, it's a male,
could be your neighbor something. Tell them to just watch
this episode and they can also better. Yet, they can
do the rerun. Now I'm not getting paid for this,
I'm just saying it. They can do the rerun on
(45:21):
that episode of Rai's Anatomy, I think it was maybe
about three months ago, but it's the holiday do a marathon.
You'll eventually see it. It's one of the newer episodes,
so you have to make sure that you follow, subscribe,
and share this episode with that black man Dag. Did
I say that right? I meant it. Distinguished Author's Guild
(45:46):
Award Winness will be joining me on the next episode
of Basic Black after Dark on Friday, December to nineteenth
at eight pm, and I can't wait to speak to
those winuites. This is Black Diamond and as always, thanks
for keeping it Basic. Good Night,
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