PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — As the nation prepares to celebrate Juneteenth 2023, 10 On Your Side has partnered with the Urban League of Hampton Roads to bring you stories of the pain and the purpose.
On this second national Juneteenth celebration, the nation’s second oldest civil rights group is sounding the alarm about what it calls a mental health crisis in the African American community. Dr. Tim Goler, a social psychologist at Norfolk State University, has partnered with the Urban League of Hampton Roads in efforts to erase the stigma associated with mental health disorders.
“Your village right now is in a crisis,” Goler said when asked about the state of the proverbial African Village. “We are not in good shape.”
More than 400 years after the first Africans landed in Hampton, Virginia – also known as Point Comfort – the invisible chains of poverty, mass incarceration, violence and abuse have left a community in bondage.
“Different from any other racial group or ethnic group in America because as African Americans we have those unique origins in this country and the byproduct of that oppression is what we are witnessing in our communities today,” said Dr. Goler.
In partnership with the Urban League of Hampton Roads, Goler is issuing an urgent call.
“African Americans are suffering deeply from mental health issues, so our job is really to try to erase the stigma with it and try to provide as many resources as possible,” said Goler.
To help illustrate the mental health ills that have contributed to the crisis, 10 On Your Side called on Tourquoise’s School of Dance in the College Park Section of Virginia Beach. With original material created for dancers of all ages, the school in song and in dance takes on the tough topics of domestic abuse, sexual abuse and suicidality. One act is called a letter to God.
“Dear God, why is this happening to us? Please help us; In you we trust. My mother needs you, she can’t get by. A monster scares her every night; please hear my cry.”
“We have a lot of issues in our society that we don’t talk about – abuses on a lot of different levels, from domestic abuse, to incest, to molestations, to rape going on in our own communities, and we don’t talk about it,” said Goler, who adds the gun violence is yet another byproduct of generational oppression.
“If the community that perpetrates violent acts knew how beautiful they really are,” Goler said, “their energy would be used in different ways; their energies would be used in building up our communities instead of tearing them down.”
