Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
If I’m going to talk about it and I’m not ashamed of it, then you shouldn’t be either. A lot of people’s mental health, you know, including myself, is just, I mean, it’s like you’re under constant attack.
Nathan Denzin:
Reverend Everett Mitchell is pastor of Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church in Madison, and is also a Dane County judge.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
I don’t know what it is, but people feel darker now.
dr. Jasmine Zapata:
Mental health is extremely important, especially in the aftermath of COVID.
Nathan Denzin:
Dr. Jasmine Zapata is the chief medical officer for community health at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.
dr. Jasmine Zapata:
Young people, and in particular our Black youth, where we see increases in overdoses, mental health concerns, bad childhood experiences.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
I grew up, there was a lot of trauma, but nobody talked about it. There is much pain; no one declares it. We see cycles in people, you know, alcoholism and drug abuse, kind of go through the same cycles.
Nathan Denzin:
Repeated cycles of families that repeat themselves. For Lilada Gee, many of the mental health issues facing the Black community today can be attributed to the generational trauma they hold.
Lila Gee:
I don’t think there is a single Black American who hasn’t been touched by generational trauma.
Nathan Denzin:
Gee is the founder of Defending Black Girlhood, a nonprofit that works with Black girls and women to unpack and heal their trauma. As part of that work, he creates art that depicts strength. He is also a lecturer in the Madison-based Nehemiah’s Justified Anger: Black History for a New Day course. The nine-week course teaches the community about race, history, and justice.
Lila Gee:
The way I would explain it is something that happened to an ancestor so badly that the effect reverberates to this day.
Nathan Denzin:
Even if you’re not aware of the trauma you’re carrying, Reggie Jackson says it affects your life.
Reggie Jackson:
It teaches you to see yourself in a certain way. It teaches you that somehow, you cannot think of yourself in a positive way.
Nathan Denzin:
Jackson is a leader in the Milwaukee community.
Reggie Jackson:
Society will tell you, generation after generation, even after slavery ended, that you are an inferior species, that you don’t deserve to be treated as a first class citizen of America.
Lila Gee:
If you don’t have a healing experience, then that trauma stays there. It is passed on in terms of the way you interact with your family members, your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren. All things are affected by the people who came before you.
Nathan Denzin:
Generations of people treated as second-class citizens, often expressed in so-called microaggressions.
Lila Gee:
Microaggressions from my definition, are these small, subtle experiences that happen often.
Nathan Denzin:
Some are small and insidious; others are obvious, and they can happen in every area of life, like trying to schedule appointments.
Lila Gee:
The woman I was talking to, she put her hand on top of the phone and said to someone in the back, “I don’t want to be racist, but I think I’m talking to an angry Black woman here. ”
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
We thank you, God, for all these blessings…
Nathan Denzin:
At Christ the Solid Rock, Mitchell says the trauma his parishioners carry is always on his mind.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
I prioritize not only education about faith, but your mental health, mental health as a spiritual priority.
Nathan Denzin:
While church attendance is declining, nearly 70% of Black Americans still go to church at least once a month.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
The Black church is important because it speaks to the issues people are experiencing.
Nathan Denzin:
The Black church has been a part of American life since before America was founded. The first Black church was built in 1773 during slavery.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
In many ways, the Black church is a response to, you know, the brutality of slavery in our American history.
Nathan Denzin:
Mitchell says that the Black church is different from most white churches because they always talk about religious practicality.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
What you experience in the outside world must be brought here so that we can better understand how we deal with it, how we talk about it.
Nathan Denzin:
To help his congregation work through the trauma they have experienced, Mitchell delivers a five-week sermon each year to help identify and heal the trauma and resulting mental health problems.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
You don’t have to pray for it. It is something we recognize and we live, and living with it is what gives us the courage to be able to change it into something that will be useful for us and our families that we serve.
Nathan Denzin:
He said the sermons had a great impact on his congregation.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
But it is something within us.
That in and of itself gives people permission to enter and exit the space of trauma without thinking that it is something they need to get rid of or that a sermon or a prayer is the only thing that will release. this.
Nathan Denzin:
For Lilada Gee, the most important healing work is for black women.
Lila Gee:
It’s hard for the Black community to progress if Black women are not good, and if Black women are not good, then they continue to pass that pain on from generation to generation.
Nathan Denzin:
But he says recovery is possible if you’re willing to work and lean into happiness.
Lila Gee:
Happiness is something you feel, you can feel when you lean in, and it comes from gratitude, and it comes from hope and faith that your life will be better.
Hon. Rev. Everett Mitchell:
Our messages need to be brighter, and the only way we can do that is to give people a featured experience in our local community to offset all the crazy stuff they’ve been hearing.
Lila Gee:
The trauma we experience is not something we carry with us for life.
Nathan Denzin:
For Here & NowMy name is Nathan Denzin.
