Dr. Rheeda Walker recently investigated a link between suicide as a result of racial discrimination with religion as a protective factor.
“We talk to a lot of people (of African descent), and, qualitatively, they say it’s just not what you do and there is an assumption that people who try to kill themselves somehow have a weakness—and no one wants to be perceived as being weak,” says Walker, a native of Savannah, Georgia.
Though she entered the University of Georgia as a pre-law student, Walker soon took to psychology. During her classes, she became intrigued with depression and how it impacts African-Americans.
“When you think about depression, the assumption is that depressed people have experienced a lot of loss, stress and strain and oftentimes don’t have things that are going their way,” says Walker.
“And it seemed that, for African-American people, that has happened continuously and chronically over many centuries and so, in my mind, I would expect to see more depression among African-American people.”
She also found that, unlike other ethnic groups, the way African-Americans exhibit depression can be more passive.
“We don’t say things like, ‘I’m depressed,’ but we might say something like, ‘I just can’t take it anymore’ or ‘I’m just tired,’” Walker says.
