Latest / DA CREW Podcast / BASIC BLAQUE AFTER DARK LIVE ON DA CREW PODCAST EVERY 1ST & 3RD FRIDAY 8PM EST.........

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BASIC BLAQUE AFTER DARK LIVE ON DA CREW PODCAST EVERY 1ST & 3RD FRIDAY 8PM EST......... · DA CREW Podcast

0:02
Speaker 1: No appen farm against me, shame plus space.
0:12
Speaker 2: In mo.
0:15
Speaker 1: Nopal f against name, Chell home plus SPA in life,
0:28
Speaker 1: say a fine form against name, shall plus space.
0:40
Speaker 3: Hear all lad said.
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Speaker 1: Against me shall plus spect.
1:00
Speaker 2: Mine.
1:01
Speaker 3: May I have your attention? Please? The show stops in
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Speaker 3: nice okay seven to six, five four three few fun go.
1:29
Speaker 1: Hey everybody. This is Black Diamond from Basic Black after
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Speaker 1: Dark to show that meet you where you are and
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Speaker 1: gives you exactly what we're as for. Tonight, we're diving
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Speaker 1: into a conversation that doesn't get nearly enough space in
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Speaker 1: our community, black men's mental health and how it connects
1:45
Speaker 1: to physical health, including prostate cancer. A womens Now, I
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Speaker 1: know you're wondering why I'm talking about black men's mental health. Well,
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Speaker 1: it affects me too. I have sons, brothers, cousins, and nephews,
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Speaker 1: and for too long, our men have carried the weight
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Speaker 1: of the world on their shoulders in silence. Silence has
2:04
Speaker 1: become the expectation, endurance has become the performance, and break
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Speaker 1: through emotional or physical to often come only when the
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Speaker 1: body forces it. Tonight, we're breaking that silence of Basic Blacks,
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Speaker 1: tuning in on black men's mental health. We're talking statistics, stigma, trauma,
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Speaker 1: generational patterns, medical mistrust, stress, suicide risk, depression, anxiety, and
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Speaker 1: the very real health disparities facing our black men. So
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Speaker 1: we're going to try to cover as much as we
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Speaker 1: can tonight, and towards the end of the show, we'll
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Speaker 1: acknowledge a powerful moment of a truth from a beloved
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Speaker 1: TV icon whose transparency has helped put a spotlight on
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Speaker 1: this issue. So sit back, rep your tea, on your coffee,
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Speaker 1: your journal, or your peace, and let's get into it now.
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Speaker 1: I want to talk about why this e sulk matness.
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Speaker 1: I think you know that by now, because Black men
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Speaker 1: are taught to survive, not feel. I'm going to say
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Speaker 1: it again. Their unhealed trauma needs to stress related illnesses
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Speaker 1: with mental health and physical health directly connected. The medical
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Speaker 1: system has historically failed black men, leading to mistrust and
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Speaker 1: late diagnosis. Black men are taught to survive and not feel.
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Speaker 1: From childhood. Many are conditioned to be strong, silent, unshakable,
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Speaker 1: and to push through pain. They're taught to swallow emotions
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Speaker 1: and never show vulnerability. I understand we want our men
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Speaker 1: to be strong and unshakable, but that silence comes at
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Speaker 1: a cost. Unhealed trauma doesn't disappear, It settles into the body,
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Speaker 1: turn it into stress related illnesses like high blood pressure,
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Speaker 1: heart disease, things depression, and emotional shutdown. With the mind
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Speaker 1: tries to ignore, the body eventually expresses. Let's look at
4:09
Speaker 1: mental health and physical health. They are directly connected. The
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Speaker 1: weight of unspoken emotions, unprocessed trauma, and constant pressure can
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Speaker 1: break a man down long before he ever sees a doctor.
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Speaker 1: And for Black men, that breakdown often goes unnoticed until
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Speaker 1: it becomes life threatening. And we cannot ignore this truth.
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Speaker 1: The medical system as historically veiled black men, from mixed
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Speaker 1: diagnosis to the black to racial biases and healthcare settings.
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Speaker 1: This history creates deep mistrust, causing many men to delay treatment,
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Speaker 1: avoid screenings, and wait until pain is unbearable before seeking health.
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Speaker 1: By then, it's often too late. This episodees matter because
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Speaker 1: Black men deserve more, more compassion, more understanding, more support,
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Speaker 1: and more conversations that honor their truth, their struggles, and
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Speaker 1: their wellness. Tonight, we are creating space for their healing
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Speaker 1: to begin. The reality is this, black men are struggling
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Speaker 1: in silence, and the numbers tell a story that our
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Speaker 1: community can no longer ford to ignore. Black men are
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Speaker 1: less likely to receive mental health treatment, yet more likely
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Speaker 1: to experience severe life altering systems and symptoms, not because
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Speaker 1: they are weaker, but because they are taught to suppress,
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Speaker 1: to endure, and keep moving even when everything insidence is breaking.
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Speaker 1: Not into the CDC. Suicide is the third leading cause
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Speaker 1: of death for Black boys and young men ages fifteen
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Speaker 1: to twenty four, So we touch on those as well,
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Speaker 1: because cancer, mental health, it's not prejudice. It strikes the
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Speaker 1: young as well as the older. That means our sons, nephews, brothers,
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Speaker 1: and students are leaving this world at rates that share
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Speaker 1: every one of us. Black men are also four times
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Speaker 1: more likely to die by suicide than black women. And
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Speaker 1: I know some of you are sitting back saying how
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Speaker 1: because they're stronger. This is not because they suffer more,
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Speaker 1: but because they suffer alone. I want you to sink
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Speaker 1: in to this one minute. They don't tell anyone they're suffering,
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Speaker 1: just like they don't ask for directions. Now, when is
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Speaker 1: the last time you were in the car with your
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Speaker 1: men and they stop to ask for directions? They don't.
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Speaker 1: They'll play it off by going into the gas station
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Speaker 1: saying they got to get some gum, or they got
6:47
Speaker 1: to get some gas and fill it up. And you
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Speaker 1: may know, when you see the tanker's early fault, you're
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Speaker 1: really going in here to ask for directions. Oh. Yes,
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Speaker 1: they play it off because they're lost. Well, they are
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Speaker 1: at a significant loss when it comes to getting the
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Speaker 1: metal help they need. Nearly forty five percent of Black
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Speaker 1: men report symptoms of anxiety or depression that go untreated.
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Speaker 1: Almost half half of our men walking around with silent battles,
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Speaker 1: panic they can't name, sadness they can't voice, and wounds
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Speaker 1: that never get the chance to heal. And when we
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Speaker 1: look at trauma, black men are exposed to it at
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Speaker 1: significantly high rates. Community violence, racial discrimination, police encounters, unstable
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Speaker 1: or underresourced neighborhoods, childhood trauma, and generational pain. Depressure to
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Speaker 1: be the man without ever being allowed to be human,
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Speaker 1: something that was almost stripped from them hundreds of years ago.
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Speaker 1: Now I'm not going to take us back into that time.
7:55
Speaker 1: I'm talking about hundreds of years ago and what our
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Speaker 1: black men and women were stripped up. This constant exposure
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Speaker 1: creates a storm in the mind and body that man
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Speaker 1: never talk about because they feel they're not allowed to.
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Speaker 1: They feel muffled, like there's a gag order on them
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Speaker 1: that they can't express how they feel or what's wrong
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Speaker 1: with them. The state of black men in America is
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Speaker 1: not about weakness. It's about the weight they carry, often silently,
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Speaker 1: with no outlet, no support system, and no safe space
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Speaker 1: to fall apart. And this is exactly why conversations like
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Speaker 1: tonight are not optional. It should be mandated. They are necessary,
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Speaker 1: They are life saving, and they are overdone. I want
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Speaker 1: to talk to you just a little bit about some barriers.
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Speaker 1: I believe these men must seek help. When we talk
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Speaker 1: about why black men often don't seek support, we must
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Speaker 1: acknowledge the barriers, not imagine everyone's, but real, live generation
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Speaker 1: should know obstacles that have shaped the way all men
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Speaker 1: show up in the world. I shouldn't even have to
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Speaker 1: guess this one. Nobody should guess this one. And the
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Speaker 1: first barrier is stigma, that old message we've heard for generation.
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Speaker 1: Tell men you know where it is real men don't
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Speaker 1: cry for me. I don't have a problem with my
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Speaker 1: man crying. You can cry on my shoulder, because that
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Speaker 1: tells me that he's not alone in them there to
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Speaker 1: support them. Now, I don't know how many times I
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Speaker 1: heard that that men. Real men don't cry, Real men
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Speaker 1: don't ask for help, real men don't break those lies
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Speaker 1: have silence. Countless Black men who were hurt, grieving, or
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Speaker 1: overwhelmed were too afraid to be seen as vulnerable. Personally,
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Speaker 1: I like a vulnerable man. It shows me that he
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Speaker 1: is real and that he is human. Then there's the
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Speaker 1: fear of being seen as weak. Well, I only think
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Speaker 1: that the man is maybe if he can't carry maybe
10:03
Speaker 1: a TV from one room to the next. Many black
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Speaker 1: men may grow up believing that showing emotion makes them
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Speaker 1: less of a man. I have seen it, I've heard it,
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Speaker 1: and I'm quite sure you have to a lot of fathers. Wow,
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Speaker 1: they expect it to be the rock, that such a
10:27
Speaker 1: young age the backbone to protector, even when m town
10:38
Speaker 1: stays in this house, no younger better than that. Our
10:42
Speaker 1: fathers learned it from their fathers, and their fathers learned
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Speaker 1: it from their fathers. Emotional suppression has become a true
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Speaker 1: fea of job impact. Too many men worried that me
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Speaker 1: and their struggling could jeopardize their livelihood, their reputation, their
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Speaker 1: chances of being promoted or the respect they receive at work,
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Speaker 1: so they toose silence over support. Sometimes they may not
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Speaker 1: be too silent. Sometimes they may go to the barbershop
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Speaker 1: and that's where a lot of conversations happen. A lot
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Speaker 1: of them say, yeah, man, I understand what you mean.
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Speaker 1: But do they really understand what.
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I went to see a doctor and they told
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Speaker 1: me some things and I'm looking at him like, you
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Speaker 1: don't understand. It's a difference. It's a.
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Speaker 2: Different mm hm hm.
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Speaker 1: Somebody young to see me now. I remember going to
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Speaker 1: the dentist. They're just skipping off a little bit, and
12:19
Speaker 1: you know, you have a young dentist and they're looking
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Speaker 1: at your teeth. But are they looking at the teeth
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Speaker 1: of somebody my age and they know about it, or
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Speaker 1: are they just coming from dential school and they're looking
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Speaker 1: at what's new out here? Well, these are not new.
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Speaker 1: These have been with me for years. To do they
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Speaker 1: under the experience with that could be a barrier, and
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Speaker 1: it is a lack of cultural responsive therapists. Black men
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Speaker 1: often can't find providers who understand their experience. Yeah, he
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Speaker 1: won't open up, he won't even show up. Hey, I'm
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Speaker 1: so glad that you're here, yea, and you can I
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Speaker 1: sound a little bit horse so I just apologize for
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Speaker 1: that and we'll get back to this. I'm just trying
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Speaker 1: to get my volume to go, all right, I'm ready.
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Speaker 1: I'm so sorry if I natural barriers that are because
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Speaker 1: there's insurance gaps, lack of access, and the reality that
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Speaker 1: too many black men are prioritizing survival, okay, because the
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Speaker 1: bills won't pay. You got to pay your bills otherwise
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Speaker 1: some of them may feel that dead on the street.
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Speaker 1: They have children that they have to feature when they
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Speaker 1: have to prioritize their families over themselves. But let me
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Speaker 1: tell you, those bills will still be there when you're going.
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Speaker 1: And then you're going to be wonder who's going to
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Speaker 1: pay them bills? Is it going to be your wife,
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Speaker 1: your children, or your partner, because they're going to go
14:36
Speaker 1: after them and see if you were here to help them,
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Speaker 1: then you wouldn't have to worry about that. That's why
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Speaker 1: it's so important for you to go seek to help.
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Speaker 1: I understand that it's the cost, but look at what
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Speaker 1: it's really going to imagine leaving your love with behre
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Speaker 1: one day that could have actually saved your life. And finally,
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Speaker 1: we must address misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis. In medical settings, Black
15:06
Speaker 1: men are often not taken seriousness, their symptoms overlooked, their
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Speaker 1: pain minimized, or the experience misunderstood. This pre I guess
15:24
Speaker 1: when they're young, because I mean, I'm going to go
15:30
Speaker 1: back and forth. That was called the family doctor, so
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Speaker 1: we all knew who had asthma, who had this problem,
15:36
Speaker 1: who had that problem. But at some point in time,
15:38
Speaker 1: I believe when my brothers got older, they didn't want
15:40
Speaker 1: to see the same doctor that the sister was singing
15:43
Speaker 1: and alto didn't want to see a woman doctor. So
15:45
Speaker 1: as they got into their young adults, they started slacking.
15:49
Speaker 1: Sometimes they just probably woul skipped the doctor. Now I
15:53
Speaker 1: work for a company and we have children who, once
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Speaker 1: they reached a certain certain age of majority, you set
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Speaker 1: the appointments for them to go to see their doctors
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Speaker 1: and dentists and everything else. But if not, so there's
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Speaker 1: the males that choose not to go. I don't know
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Speaker 1: whether it's fear, whether it's distrust, or just simply of winds,
16:18
Speaker 1: but those encounters are going to be harmful as they
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Speaker 1: get older the These barriers don't just appear over be black.
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Speaker 2: M hm, m hm, m hm, and.
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Speaker 1: It's just in a vacuum yuring an emotional load and
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Speaker 1: cultural pressure that many black men carry from the moment
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Speaker 1: they can walk. Black men are expected to be everything
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Speaker 1: for everybody, provide us, protectors, leaders, anchors. They expect it
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Speaker 1: to be the strength, the stability, and the shield without
17:11
Speaker 1: ever being allowed to lay that burning down. Now I
17:14
Speaker 1: know you heard the song. I'm not a singing so
17:16
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna sity and sing it, but I know
17:18
Speaker 1: that you know that they have been without ever being
17:21
Speaker 1: allowed to lay that burning down. And the message is
17:24
Speaker 1: loud and clear. Don't cry, don't break, don't feel handle it,
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Speaker 1: figure it out. All those words being thrown at them,
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Speaker 1: How are we expecting them to feel, how we're expecting
17:38
Speaker 1: them to respond? Any way they respond, somebody's going to
17:41
Speaker 1: say something negative about some my He's going to have
17:48
Speaker 1: something to say about And I'm not trying to be racist,
17:52
Speaker 1: believe me, I'm not. But I deal with the majority
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Speaker 1: of black males, so I'm only speaking because of who
17:58
Speaker 1: I'm dealing with. And they could go on and other
18:00
Speaker 1: coaches too, and other coaches may say the same thing,
18:03
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying I'm only you're worried about a
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Speaker 1: black don't worry about anything for toady as far as
18:59
Speaker 1: the because they're believing that that's the way the man
19:03
Speaker 1: is supposed to be. So guess what happens. They raise
19:06
Speaker 1: their sons the same way, so they grow up doing
19:09
Speaker 1: the same things. Things like fatherhood, identity, and emotional isolation.
19:14
Speaker 1: That happens, y'all. Don't get me wrong. Even black men
19:18
Speaker 1: who come from loving, supportive families can struggle with emotional language.
19:23
Speaker 1: They may love deeply, protect fiercely, and show up consistently,
19:29
Speaker 1: but still feel isolated inside their own minds. Just imagine
19:36
Speaker 1: how it feels to be isolated in your own mind.
19:41
Speaker 1: Just take a moment and think about it. You're the
19:43
Speaker 1: only one there. Nobody else is around. You're just going
19:47
Speaker 1: around and around around.
19:48
Speaker 2: In your own mind.
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Speaker 1: There's no windows, there's no doors, and you're trying to
19:52
Speaker 1: get out. Well, sometimes that's how isolation feels. Many don't
19:57
Speaker 1: have the words to describe what they feel, not because
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Speaker 1: they don't feel it, but because no one ever taught
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Speaker 1: them how to say. First time or mother will tell
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Speaker 1: their son something the father's happened to fit. What are
20:13
Speaker 1: you trying to do? Make them out of a sissy.
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Speaker 1: Let I'm toughing up. I can tough them up. Let
20:17
Speaker 1: me take them in a row. What are you gonna
20:18
Speaker 1: start doing, Punch them in the chest, tossing them around,
20:22
Speaker 1: trying to make a man out of a boy. He's
20:25
Speaker 1: a boy. And this is what I say when I
20:26
Speaker 1: say it's generational, And I'm not faulting the father because
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Speaker 1: it probably happened to him, so it's generational. Fatherhood adds
20:35
Speaker 1: another layer. So many black fathers feel the pressure to
20:40
Speaker 1: always be on to be strong for their children, stable
20:44
Speaker 1: for their family, stoic and moments that would break anyone else.
20:48
Speaker 1: You know what, I'm gonna come out of character for
20:50
Speaker 1: a minute. I can just about tell you that these
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Speaker 1: black men that I'm talking about, the ones that appear
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Speaker 1: here to be so strong and appear to be tough
21:02
Speaker 1: in front of their kids, they take it to bed
21:06
Speaker 1: with them. Sometimes some of them sit on the side
21:10
Speaker 1: of the bed and when you think that something is
21:14
Speaker 1: wrong or that he's just in his feelings, he is
21:16
Speaker 1: in his feelings. He's in his feelings because he wants
21:20
Speaker 1: to do better by his son by his family. But
21:23
Speaker 1: he's struggling because he wasn't taught, so he's trying to
21:26
Speaker 1: figure it out. Do I teach him how to do
21:29
Speaker 1: this the way that it should be done, or do
21:32
Speaker 1: I do it in a way that if my friends
21:34
Speaker 1: or my buddies or somebody else see it, they're gonna
21:36
Speaker 1: call me weak? Father adds another layer. They have to
21:42
Speaker 1: be strong for their children, to stayble for their family.
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Speaker 1: But beneath that tough exterior, many are exhausted. So when
21:50
Speaker 1: they come in the house and they telling me they're tired,
21:53
Speaker 1: they're tired because they're thinking. A minute they get off
21:57
Speaker 1: of work, they're thinking of what's back at home. And
22:00
Speaker 1: when they're thinking about what's back at home, how they
22:02
Speaker 1: have to treat their family, how they have to care
22:03
Speaker 1: for their family, they don't even have time to be
22:07
Speaker 1: thinking about themselves emotionally, mentally, or spiritually. The impact of
22:12
Speaker 1: racism and discrimination, and then there's the trauma of simply
22:19
Speaker 1: being a black man in America. Let's talk about workplace stress,
22:24
Speaker 1: and I was just hitting on that a few minutes ago.
22:27
Speaker 1: It's being overlooked, it's being questioned or expected to work
22:31
Speaker 1: twice as hard for half the recognition. Then there's systemic
22:37
Speaker 1: bias from education to employment to healthcare. Now I'm going
22:45
Speaker 1: to mention over policing, the fear that any interaction can
22:51
Speaker 1: go wrong. I've taught my sons when you're sitting in
22:57
Speaker 1: the car and you're stopped by police officer, what do
23:03
Speaker 1: you think the first thing is that you should do?
23:06
Speaker 1: And they had different opinions of what they should do,
23:07
Speaker 1: and I told them, no, the first thing that you
23:10
Speaker 1: are to do is you do take both of your
23:12
Speaker 1: hands and you put them in the window, right there,
23:15
Speaker 1: in that front window. And when they tell you to
23:18
Speaker 1: step out of that car, you step out, and you
23:20
Speaker 1: just keep sliding your hands laid on that glass window
23:23
Speaker 1: because it's showing you have no weapon in your hand,
23:27
Speaker 1: and that your hands was free and your hands was open.
23:29
Speaker 1: Because if they can't say that you was reaching for something,
23:33
Speaker 1: they can't say that they thought your cell phone was
23:35
Speaker 1: a gun. You have two handprints inside of a window.
23:39
Speaker 1: These are some of the things and it's unfortunate that
23:41
Speaker 1: we have to teach our sons to do just to
23:43
Speaker 1: protect themselves. Have you heard of micro aggressions? It's real.
23:51
Speaker 1: It's those subtle jabs that say you don't belong here,
23:56
Speaker 1: and it's so unfortunate. Sometimes you even hear it in
23:58
Speaker 1: your own family that you don't belong head. This isn't hypothetical,
24:05
Speaker 1: this is daily life, and daily trauma becomes chronic trauma.
24:10
Speaker 1: And chronic trauma doesn't just hurt the mind, it breaks
24:13
Speaker 1: down the body. Chronic stress chronic disease. Decades of studies
24:21
Speaker 1: shows that chronic stress causes physical deterioration, including hot blood pressure,
24:28
Speaker 1: heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and weakened immune systems. And yes,
24:36
Speaker 1: even prostate cancer is impacted by chronic stress and inflammation.
24:42
Speaker 1: When stress hormones stay elevated for years, the body begins
24:46
Speaker 1: to attack itself, and for Black men, who face some
24:50
Speaker 1: of the highest levels of race related stress, the risk
24:55
Speaker 1: of disease skyrockets. This means emotional suffering becomes physical suffware,
25:01
Speaker 1: and unspoken pain becomes a medical crisis. This emotional load
25:07
Speaker 1: is not a weakness, it's a warning, a signal that
25:12
Speaker 1: black men need room to breathe, to rest, to feel,
25:17
Speaker 1: to talk, and to heal. Because no man should have
25:21
Speaker 1: to carry the world alone. So women, they can't do
25:25
Speaker 1: it alone, and they shouldn't. Let's support our black men better. Yet,
25:30
Speaker 1: let's respect our black men. And speaking of respect, I
25:34
Speaker 1: have tickets. See how I slip that in there? I
25:37
Speaker 1: had tickets to see a tribute to Aretha Franklin at
25:40
Speaker 1: the Gordon sent In Owen Mills, Meryland, and that's for
25:43
Speaker 1: tomorrow at seven pm. And these tickets were donated by
25:47
Speaker 1: Pat Johnson Harris. She's the founder of Young Writers Rock
25:51
Speaker 1: Well Young Writers Challenge. Pat was on our last show
25:55
Speaker 1: talking about our youth and the Youth Writers' Challenge program.
25:59
Speaker 1: But since there were any winner, sorry to say, I'm
26:03
Speaker 1: going to read the trivia question as well and answer
26:05
Speaker 1: and give you the answer to. So here's the question.
26:08
Speaker 1: So I want to see who says I thought that
26:11
Speaker 1: or no, she's wrong and check it. Here's the question.
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Speaker 1: Which Aretha Franklin album was the first to win a
26:21
Speaker 1: Grammy Award for Best Female R and B Vocal Performance.
26:27
Speaker 1: Now this is where I want to know, if you're
26:28
Speaker 1: paying attention, which Aretha Franklin album was the first to
26:34
Speaker 1: win a Grammy Award for Best Female R and B
26:38
Speaker 1: Vocal Performance. Now, how many of you said Respect? I
26:46
Speaker 1: love the song, but that's not the song. Respect won
26:51
Speaker 1: her first Grammy, but the album was I never loved
26:56
Speaker 1: the man the way I love you so so much.
27:00
Speaker 1: Many people had respect respect respect, and they even spelt
27:03
Speaker 1: it out Our die dit est and and so on
27:06
Speaker 1: and so forth. I'm sorry that wasn't it. Well, we're
27:10
Speaker 1: gonna be doing this again sometime in the future. We're
27:12
Speaker 1: gonna be doing some trivia questions, so get up on
27:14
Speaker 1: your trivia. It's not always going to be about Aretha Franklin.
27:17
Speaker 1: It's going to be about many different things. But let's
27:20
Speaker 1: get back to what we would talk about Black men's
27:23
Speaker 1: mental health. We're gonna talk about prostate cancer awareness for
27:27
Speaker 1: black men. When we talk about prostate cancer, we must
27:31
Speaker 1: be honest about something the medical system hasn't always explained
27:35
Speaker 1: it well. Black men are at the highest risk, and
27:40
Speaker 1: the reasons are layered. For one, it's genetics. There are
27:45
Speaker 1: genetic markers and hereditary patterns that make prostate cancer more
27:50
Speaker 1: aggressive than black men. So if a father, uncle, cousin,
27:56
Speaker 1: or grandfather had it, the risk increases dramatically, just like
28:00
Speaker 1: it is with women with breast hands. But there's also
28:04
Speaker 1: the delayed screening. Many black men don't get screened early,
28:10
Speaker 1: some don't get screened at all, not because they don't care,
28:14
Speaker 1: but because they're busy surviving, provided for their family, avoiding
28:19
Speaker 1: long medical rates, or simply unaware of how the early
28:23
Speaker 1: detection works. There's a lot of healthcare mistrust, and let's
28:29
Speaker 1: be real, Black men have every reason to mistrust the
28:32
Speaker 1: healthcare system. There's decades of bias, neglect, misdiagnosis, and medical
28:40
Speaker 1: racism have consequences. This mistrust leads to delayed care, and
28:45
Speaker 1: delayed here leads to later stage diagnoses. But it's also
28:50
Speaker 1: environmental and dietary factors that play a role. Inness food desserts,
28:56
Speaker 1: high stress environments, limited access to resh produce, and lifestyle
29:02
Speaker 1: shaped by socioeconomic barriers. They all play a role. Inflammation
29:08
Speaker 1: from stress and diet can also influence can to growth.
29:14
Speaker 1: Stress will stress you out. But there's some statistics from
29:18
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five. These numbers tell
29:21
Speaker 1: the story planing. One in eight men will develop prostate
29:25
Speaker 1: cancer in their lifetime. For black men, it's one in six.
29:32
Speaker 1: Black men are twice is likely to die from prostate
29:35
Speaker 1: cancer compared to other races. When court early prostate cancer
29:42
Speaker 1: is up to ninety nine percent treated. Now, I said, treatable.
29:47
Speaker 1: Don't get it confused. We're carible. Early detection is not
29:51
Speaker 1: just important, it's life saving. You can do screening. They
29:56
Speaker 1: are screening guidelines the general population. The PS say announcement
30:02
Speaker 1: blood tests starting at age forty five to fifty and
30:06
Speaker 1: for black men or anyone with family history, start at
30:09
Speaker 1: age forty and test every year. Give yourself a birthday gift.
30:16
Speaker 1: Do it on your birthday. Test every year on your birthday.
30:21
Speaker 1: This way you won't forget, and it's a gift. When
30:24
Speaker 1: they tell you that it's all clear. Not every doctor
30:27
Speaker 1: will mention this, but every black man needs to know it.
30:31
Speaker 1: There are signs and symptoms, and there's the difficult truth.
30:36
Speaker 1: Pricetate cancer often has no symptoms in the early stages.
30:41
Speaker 1: When symptoms do appear, they may include things like frequent urination,
30:47
Speaker 1: weak urine flow, blood in the urine, discomfort or pressure
30:53
Speaker 1: in the pelvic area, erectile dysfunction. Don't be embarrassed. Don't
31:00
Speaker 1: be embarrassed at all because it happens. Go to your
31:03
Speaker 1: doctor and try to figure it out on what's going on.
31:06
Speaker 1: But again, and this is critical, most men have zero
31:11
Speaker 1: symptoms and tell the cancer is advanced That is why
31:15
Speaker 1: screening is not optional. To tell you the truth, it
31:19
Speaker 1: should be mandatory. And I know some people say, well,
31:23
Speaker 1: that's my body. Nobody should mandate me to do anything,
31:27
Speaker 1: But not for black men. Not with these numbers. Early
31:32
Speaker 1: testing saved lives. A simple blood test ten minutes once
31:38
Speaker 1: a year, and it can change your men's entire future.
31:41
Speaker 1: It can change your family's entire future. This information isn't
31:45
Speaker 1: fear based, it's empowerment because knowledge gives black men a
31:50
Speaker 1: fighting chance, and early detection gives them their lives back.
31:56
Speaker 1: There's a connection between mental health and physical health back.
32:00
Speaker 1: Did you know that. One of the most important truths
32:05
Speaker 1: we have to acknowledge is this Mental health and physical
32:10
Speaker 1: health are not separate. They are two halves of the
32:13
Speaker 1: same story, especially for black men. For instance, depression doesn't
32:19
Speaker 1: always look like sadness. So because somebody is said, you
32:23
Speaker 1: don't have to say that they're depressed, And because they're
32:26
Speaker 1: depressed doesn't mean that they're sad. For many men, depression
32:30
Speaker 1: shows up as physical symptoms constant fatigue, aches and pains, headaches,
32:39
Speaker 1: low motivation, trouble concentrating. These symptoms are real, but they're
32:45
Speaker 1: often dismissed. As being tired or just stressed when there's
32:50
Speaker 1: signs of emotional overload. Now I'm guilty of that myself
32:52
Speaker 1: because some people say something to man, I say, no,
32:54
Speaker 1: I'm just tired. Well, you know what I said a lot.
32:58
Speaker 1: I'm just tired, but I know this other thing's going on.
33:00
Speaker 1: So I've been doing a marathon lately of seeing doctors
33:05
Speaker 1: running around trying to make sure everything is right, because
33:09
Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you, the older you get, the more
33:11
Speaker 1: you need to look for different things that could be happening,
33:15
Speaker 1: that could have been happening, and now it's manifested into
33:18
Speaker 1: something else. So then the anxiety and the body starts
33:22
Speaker 1: to react. Anxiety isn't just a mental experience. It's physical.
33:28
Speaker 1: It raises heart rate, increases blood pressure, disrupts sleep, and
33:33
Speaker 1: it keeps the body in a constant state of alertness.
33:37
Speaker 1: For black men, who already face higher risk of hypertension,
33:40
Speaker 1: this combination can be dangerous. Like suppressed emotion, information information
33:48
Speaker 1: is dangerous. You may think, oh, just my ankles are swollen,
33:52
Speaker 1: Oh just my hand is just tight. You're giving yourself
33:56
Speaker 1: a diagnosis. And I'm not saying that. You're not a doctor,
34:01
Speaker 1: you should know your body better, but your body is
34:04
Speaker 1: telling you something at the same time. When emotions are
34:07
Speaker 1: swallowed instead of express the body pays the price. Expressing anger, grief, fear,
34:14
Speaker 1: or stress leads to inflammation. That's the root of many diseases.
34:20
Speaker 1: Inflammation contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, and even
34:26
Speaker 1: prostate cancer progression. Now I know there's a fear of diagnosis.
34:32
Speaker 1: Many black men avoid doctors, not because they don't care,
34:35
Speaker 1: but because they're afraid of what they'll hear or would
34:39
Speaker 1: you want to hear something like where you only got
34:41
Speaker 1: two months to live when ten months ago you could
34:45
Speaker 1: have win. Ten years ago you could have win. You
34:49
Speaker 1: could have been doing it every year. The fear of
34:52
Speaker 1: a diagnosis, it can be paralyzing. But the reality of
34:57
Speaker 1: this is avoiding the doctor does not the diagnosis and
35:01
Speaker 1: only delays treatment and reduces survival chances. There are past trauma,
35:08
Speaker 1: medical mistrust, and generations of racism and medicine that have
35:12
Speaker 1: built walls of mistrust. Sometimes we hear our ancestors telling us, oh,
35:18
Speaker 1: don't go to their doctor. All you need is desk.
35:21
Speaker 1: You know those homemade remedies. Now, some of them do work,
35:23
Speaker 1: like the onions and socks, so when they turn brown
35:27
Speaker 1: and a pair of white socks, the fever broke. But
35:30
Speaker 1: I wouldn't tell you to go do that and think
35:32
Speaker 1: that you're not going to have prostate cancer. I'm telling
35:34
Speaker 1: you to go to the doctor. Many black men have
35:37
Speaker 1: had their pain dismissed, their symptoms ignored, or their concerns minimized.
35:44
Speaker 1: I've seen it sometimes, and when I'm in the doctor's work,
35:46
Speaker 1: it's not just shake my head. Sometimes I just want
35:50
Speaker 1: to get up and say, look, this is an older gentleman.
35:54
Speaker 1: He may not know or maybe he's afraid, but that's
35:59
Speaker 1: what they have those So that's what the doctor should
36:01
Speaker 1: be doing, you know, letting them know that I understand
36:04
Speaker 1: that it may be a little difficult, or it may
36:07
Speaker 1: be a little strange right now, or how could I
36:10
Speaker 1: help you? Maybe that's what they need to hear. These
36:13
Speaker 1: experiences create a real psychological barrier to seeking help. But
36:18
Speaker 1: here's the truth. We must speak clearly and compassionately. You
36:24
Speaker 1: cannot heal a body while ignoring a mind, and you
36:27
Speaker 1: cannot heal a mind while neglecting the body. They work together,
36:33
Speaker 1: they break down together, and they must be kid for
36:37
Speaker 1: together ment to well separate the two. We may not
36:56
Speaker 1: watch the same shows with the TV and media presentations
36:58
Speaker 1: in real life. And one of the most unexpected places
37:01
Speaker 1: where a whenness begins it is television. We'll watch well,
37:07
Speaker 1: I won't watch it because I'm not into football, but
37:10
Speaker 1: we'll watch the super Bowl. And then there's those little
37:13
Speaker 1: commercials and the dances and the singers and the rappers
37:16
Speaker 1: and everything else that's going on up in there, and
37:19
Speaker 1: we get up and we walk away. But in between
37:21
Speaker 1: all of that, that's important information that comes on because
37:25
Speaker 1: you done walk away and got your beer, got your
37:28
Speaker 1: whole gee, got whatever it is that makes you feel
37:30
Speaker 1: like you want to eat. But a whenness begins with
37:34
Speaker 1: the television. Sometimes shows like one of my favorites, Gray's Anatomy,
37:39
Speaker 1: It reached millions of people every week. Don't tell me, oh,
37:41
Speaker 1: that's just when those doctor shows, they have consultants, and
37:47
Speaker 1: one of those people on is actually a nurse. She's
37:51
Speaker 1: always in the operating room. She's actually a nurse. And
37:54
Speaker 1: sometimes they open conversations that our real lives never make
37:59
Speaker 1: room for. For many black men, these conversations don't happen
38:03
Speaker 1: at home, they don't happen at work, they don't even
38:07
Speaker 1: happen with their closest friends. Talking about fear, health, trauma,
38:14
Speaker 1: or emotions often feels off limits, so the silence continues,
38:20
Speaker 1: the stigma continues, and the suffering that also continues. But
38:27
Speaker 1: then a storyline appears on the show. It's something that
38:31
Speaker 1: you may watch, or something that your friend may be watching,
38:34
Speaker 1: maybe casually, maybe with their partner, maybe just flipping channels,
38:39
Speaker 1: and suddenly the topic is right there in front of them.
38:41
Speaker 1: A storyline makes space, It becomes a safe entry point.
38:47
Speaker 1: It's a mirror, a moment of recognition. Because sometimes a
38:51
Speaker 1: man won't say I'm scared, but he will say that
38:55
Speaker 1: episode really hit home. Ladies, when you hear him say
38:59
Speaker 1: that something's going on, but he's just not telling me.
39:03
Speaker 1: Don't push, just be there for that's how the conversation begins.
39:08
Speaker 1: Representation matters not just while children, but for grown black
39:13
Speaker 1: men who have never seen their stories, their fears, or
39:17
Speaker 1: their struggles reflected with truth and empathy. Just think about that.
39:23
Speaker 1: Say it to yourself, black men and empathy. What do
39:28
Speaker 1: you think is going on there when you hear black
39:30
Speaker 1: men and empathy? Doesn't happen too often?
39:33
Speaker 3: Do it?
39:35
Speaker 1: When television shows portray black men dealing with mental health challenges,
39:39
Speaker 1: medical trauma, or early cancer detection. It helps normalize the conversation.
39:45
Speaker 1: It reduces the stigma, It opens the door. Shows like
39:51
Speaker 1: Gray's Anatomy just don't entertain, They educate. They spark dialogue,
39:58
Speaker 1: raise awareness, and plants seeds that grow into real change. Now,
40:03
Speaker 1: there was an episode and that was with It was
40:08
Speaker 1: a young man that was on there and he had
40:12
Speaker 1: to have surgery and he had to have a penal extortion.
40:22
Speaker 1: I would say, and I'm gonna tell you, I was
40:25
Speaker 1: kind of surprised when I heard about it, But then
40:28
Speaker 1: when they asked the question, when Debbie Allen asked the question, well,
40:31
Speaker 1: that's what she really is, but that's not how character
40:33
Speaker 1: on the show who wanted to join her to girl
40:36
Speaker 1: those hands and went up to students. I wish I
40:39
Speaker 1: could have threw my hand up because I wanted to.
40:41
Speaker 1: It's not that I wanted to see I just wanted
40:43
Speaker 1: to know how it was done well. Tonight's episode on
40:46
Speaker 1: Basic Black After Darkness, one of those conversations made possible
40:50
Speaker 1: because someone in the media chose to shine a light.
40:54
Speaker 1: And the more we see our stories represented, the more
40:57
Speaker 1: our men feel scene and the more our community begins
41:01
Speaker 1: to heal. There's transparency, this storytelling, and this hope. As
41:08
Speaker 1: we talk about representation and the power of media, there's
41:11
Speaker 1: a moment we must acknowledge, a moment that didn't just
41:15
Speaker 1: play out on the screen, but resonated in real life.
41:19
Speaker 1: On Gray's Anatomy, a recent storyline opened the door for
41:22
Speaker 1: deeper dialogue about black men in prostate cancer. It wasn't sensationalized,
41:29
Speaker 1: it wasn't exaggerated. It was honest, vulnerable, and grounded in
41:36
Speaker 1: the reality that far too many of our men facing silence.
41:41
Speaker 1: But what made this moment even more powerful is what
41:44
Speaker 1: happened off screen. The actor behind the character showed courage
41:50
Speaker 1: far beyond the script, far beyond the character, and far
41:53
Speaker 1: beyond the role he was portraying. He was real. He
41:58
Speaker 1: was talking to you about something personal, something that he
42:01
Speaker 1: has been dealing with. He shared his own personal medical journey,
42:06
Speaker 1: not for sympathy, not Fourklaus, but to raise awareness and
42:11
Speaker 1: save lives. He used his platform to speak truth to you.
42:16
Speaker 1: He used his story to encourage early testing, to break stigma,
42:21
Speaker 1: and to remind black men that their health matters just
42:24
Speaker 1: as much as everyone else's. His vulnerability became a PSA,
42:31
Speaker 1: his transparency became a lifeline, and his bravery became a
42:36
Speaker 1: conversation starter, including the one we're having right now. I
42:41
Speaker 1: fliped through those channels where I watched the show anyway,
42:45
Speaker 1: and I was surprised and I was proud. So tonight,
42:50
Speaker 1: with deep gratitude and respect, thank you, James Pickens Junior,
42:55
Speaker 1: for your transparency, your courage, and for using your platform
43:01
Speaker 1: to help save lives in our community. Your voice, madness,
43:08
Speaker 1: your story matters, and because you spoke up, countless black
43:13
Speaker 1: men may choose to get checked, take their health seriously
43:17
Speaker 1: and stay alive. Now there's resources like the Mental Health
43:21
Speaker 1: Support for Black Men, black Menheal dot org, stevefun dot org,
43:29
Speaker 1: Nomi dot org that can help you with mental health.
43:32
Speaker 1: And for prostincancer, there's Black Healthmatters dot com, Prostatecancer Foundation
43:39
Speaker 1: at PCF dot org. And then there's always the CDC
43:44
Speaker 1: dot gov, backslash Cancer, backslash prostect. When the CDC, you
43:48
Speaker 1: can find just about everything that is that you want
43:50
Speaker 1: to talk about when it comes to either mental illness,
43:53
Speaker 1: illness or something. Then there's the Crisis Resources None eight
43:58
Speaker 1: eight suicide and crisis Lifeline. You can text the word
44:03
Speaker 1: home to seven four one, seven four one for the
44:08
Speaker 1: crisis text line. This has been another powerful episode of
44:14
Speaker 1: Basic Black After Dark And to every black man listening,
44:19
Speaker 1: your life matters, your health matness, your emotions matter, your
44:26
Speaker 1: stories matter. You don't have to carry the world alone.
44:30
Speaker 1: You don't have to suffer in silence, and you don't
44:33
Speaker 1: have to wait to get help mentally or physically. Tonight
44:37
Speaker 1: we honor the courage it takes for a man to
44:39
Speaker 1: admit I need support, I need to check up, I
44:45
Speaker 1: need someone to talk to. And again, especially thank you
44:49
Speaker 1: to James Pickins Junior for using both his art and
44:53
Speaker 1: It's truth to raise awareness. So make sure you follow, subscribe,
44:58
Speaker 1: and share this episode with a black man you love.
45:01
Speaker 1: Even if you don't love him, you just don't like him,
45:05
Speaker 1: you have to be in love with him. You can
45:07
Speaker 1: like him. Could be a distant relative, it's a male,
45:10
Speaker 1: could be your neighbor something. Tell them to just watch
45:13
Speaker 1: this episode and they can also better. Yet, they can
45:16
Speaker 1: do the rerun. Now I'm not getting paid for this,
45:18
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it. They can do the rerun on
45:21
Speaker 1: that episode of Rai's Anatomy, I think it was maybe
45:24
Speaker 1: about three months ago, but it's the holiday do a marathon.
45:30
Speaker 1: You'll eventually see it. It's one of the newer episodes,
45:33
Speaker 1: so you have to make sure that you follow, subscribe,
45:35
Speaker 1: and share this episode with that black man Dag. Did
45:41
Speaker 1: I say that right? I meant it. Distinguished Author's Guild
45:46
Speaker 1: Award Winness will be joining me on the next episode
45:49
Speaker 1: of Basic Black after Dark on Friday, December to nineteenth
45:54
Speaker 1: at eight pm, and I can't wait to speak to
45:56
Speaker 1: those winuites. This is Black Diamond and as always, thanks
46:01
Speaker 1: for keeping it Basic. Good Night,