I thought I had heard it all….
According to RichmondMag, Virginia Commonwealth University seniors Brittney Maddox and Taneasha White recently co-founded the “Black Minds Matter Project” at the Richmond-based school to combat “mental illness” in the black community caused by – you guessed it – racism.
And by “mental illness,” they mean the psychological “trauma” of enduring “microaggressions” from white people.
“Mental illness on a large scale has a prevalence in the black community,” White says. “Especially in this area, even though Richmond is like 51 percent black people, there is still a large presence of non people of color, at VCU especially. [Because of that] I know some people have problems finding the community they need.”
In the article, Maddox complained of “racist ‘microaggressions,’ intentional and unintentional, directed towards her that pile up throughout the day and have a negative impact on her mental state.”
“I just remember feeling really tired and the videos [of the shootings] were up everywhere,” Maddox says. “Everything was just crazy, so I hit up some friends to ask, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ You know, you check in just to see how people were feeling about this and we all kind of had the same feelings.”
And of course, collective feelings equal a serious mental health diagnosis.
Maddox claims some professors have told her they’re suffering from “racial battle fatigue,” which she classifies as an actual mental health illness brought on by the “trauma or stigma attached to the black identity.”
Maddoz and White have set up workshops to help these black people fight their “illness”, including one called “We Gon’ Be All Right: An Allyship Workshop,” another entitled “Are You OK?” and the Beyoncé-themed “Getting In Formation: A Trauma Coping Workshop.”
This would be hilarious, if it weren’t so insulting to those who actually struggle with mental illness.