Mental Health Problems

Today in class we were discussing statistics relating to how young black males are more likely to be diagnosed with mental health problems than their white counterparts. Why is that one student asked the teacher? Why is that one student asked? “Weed”, the teacher replied, “smoking the weed.” Where ____ comes from in Africa mental health issues are not diagnosed: Depression doesn’t exist. Everybody is happy. But in England everybody is depressed these days, even more than in the nineties when, let’s be honest, music was really,really bad.

But most of all, young black males have mental health problems.

“That’s stereotyping,” another student protested, “how can you say that more young black men have mental health problems than white men.” “Because that’s a fact” the teacher stated, “the statistics say so time and time again: young black males are more likely to have mental health problems than white males.” I think of some of the skateboarders I have known and how many black ones have been diagnosed with mental health issues. And the weed? “ have a problem with weed because it’s a gateway drug” the teacher says before recounting that when she was a nursery nurse you could always tell which children, by way of their glazed expressions, lived in houses where their parents smoked indoors.

I thought of all the white people I knew who smoked weed that hadn’t been diagnosed with mental health problems although I also knew of some who had. Some of those didn’t smoke weed.

I tried to sound like I was talking from passed experience. “But plenty of white scallie-s…” I began, before realising what I was saying and how it evoked images of reactionary armchair social commentators struggling to find the right words when talking about the local youth hanging around the bus shelter. There was time to amend myself and as much I didn’t mind falling foul of the average white man I thought words like ‘chav’ and ‘scally’ to be undignified forms of expression for any speaker who wants to be heard and, much more, taken seriously by other adults. I began to correct myself whilst mid flow before saying: “ Scally wag” . The class seemed to temporarily freeze before collapsing in Laughter. “Scallywag,” someone exclaimed “ I can’t believe that you just used the word ‘scallywag’

I tried to explain my rational but it was too late I had already said it and explaining how I was about to say scally but changed my mind didn’t deter the laughter. To end the class collectively filled in a NHS questionnaire on the overhead projection screen to see how depressed we were. Unanimously, the entire class was completely depressed.

Outside ______ tells me that she had taken to putting the weed out of reach and only smoking in her garden ever since she caught her two year old daughter trying to roll a joint.. It’s a lovely sunny day and we smoke cigarettes whilst taking about our future plans for better lives, both our own and others, before I say goodbye and cycle home, the gears slipping all the way up Tufnell Park Road.

PS: Many Thanks to Lee Rourke, author of 'The Canal' , for waking me up from the dead.