Read This: Four black women writers discuss mental illness and race
Mental health is increasingly becoming a mainstream topic of conversation, both on TV and in real life. But those conversations don’t necessarily extend to everyone equally. So The Huffington Post brought together four black women writers for a roundtable discussion about mental illness and race. The writers who participated in the conversation are Minaa B, Ashley Reese, Zeba Blay, and Angelica Jade Bastién (we’ve previously linked to Bastién’s feminist analysis of American Psycho and her reexamination of Joan Crawford). The four women discuss identity, culture, and the difficulty of grappling with larger social injustices on a very personal level. Bastién writes:
I use pop culture to discuss these issues and how they affect my life. I’m not sure I could mentally handle writing about race, politics, and gender directly. Using film, television, and comics as a lens provides a bit of a buffer. But lately I have been fatigued by being so open about my struggles with bipolar disorder and anxiety. Which I used to discuss more openly on social media.