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Suicide Statistics by Race


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Here's something you don't hear a lot of about.  While I was working on a piece about the absurdity of life, I found out middle aged white males have the highest suicide rate of all groups here in the U.S.

 In fact out of the more than 42,000 suicides in 2013, 7 out of 10 were committed by white males. Next highest were American Indians/Alaska Natives who ranked up there at 11.7% out of every 100,000.   

Guess who is near last on this list with the fewest suicides per 100,000?  You guessed it, at 5.4% per 100,000 suicides for African-Americans.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage is less for African-American women. The report indicates women overall make more suicide attempts but rarely succeed.   Sadly, however suicides are increasing among African-American children according to SAMHSA 's statistics from JAMA Pediatrics.  

I have no clue, and none was offered as to why so many white men here in the U.S. end their own life. I don't take the findings lightly either.  I was curious.  Initially, when I went looking for the statistics I thought African-Americans would have the highest suicide rate since many of us report experiencing high rates of stress.  The CDC statistics, however, doesn't support my theory.  

If I had to guess why the rate was so high for white males here in America; My guess  would be influenced by Edward Bruce Bynum, Ph.D. (Dark Light Consciousness: Melanin, Serpent Power, and the Luminous Matrix of Reality).  He says the deepest level of the mind in modern humans is an African structure or an African Template.  Dr. Bynum suggest  in his lecture "African Genesis" "Most nations, most cultures fear the darkness and part of that fear is of one's own origin - 'The Threatened return of the repressed'."  

African-Americans already know where they come from. Maybe they don't  have the location of the village but they have a clue they come from the African continent.  Maybe it's hard for other cultures to reconcile they also originate from the Motherland. And that could be their undoing.   

I don't know of course but I'm fascinated by the theory. Self-Destruction comes in many forms. 

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True.

And yes there are more ways to commit suicide that putting the business end of a shotgun in your mouth ala your typical white boy.  

We kill ourselves differently, we don't take care of ourselves.  How many of us know folks who ate, smoked, OD'ed, or drank themselves to an early grave.  How about our young brothers who engage in suicidal behaviors disguised as "gang violence."  These stats are not captured under the suicide numbers.

Have you looked at the suicide rate of those in the military--those numbers are horrific for some units rivaling the numbers of those killed in action.

 

 

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43 minutes ago, Troy said:

And yes there are more ways to commit suicide that putting the business end of a shotgun in your mouth ala your typical white boy.  

I agree. I remember when I was a cigarette smoker, I thought, this is "suicide by cigarettes"... Then when I don't eat properly I think "suicide by sweets".  Yet, slow-suicide isn't quantifiable.  African-American Suicide by (fill in the blank)  is prevalent in our community.   If we add  "suicide-by- (blank) atop the current suicide-rates for all groups ... white males still come out on top.  I know it is a reach but I find Dr. Bynum's theory intriguing.  Now I  just have figure out how, what he calls, the "threatened "return of the repressed" affects African-Americans.  Surely, we don't fear our own origin.  

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49 minutes ago, Sara said:

"threatened return of the repressed,"

I'm not sure if you're familiar with Dr. Edward Bruce Bynum so I'll write this as if I'm writing for anyone who doesn't know of him.  Dr. Bynum is clinical psychologist at the University of Massachusetts. 

He says we, as a species, engage in a battle with our "primitive impulses".  Psychologists/psychiatrists call this battle the threatened "return of the repressed".   I've dismissed this term simply because I thought they were referring to ape-like behavior. 

It wasn't until the other day, I heard Dr. Bynum  (for the first time) make the reference and spell it out  in his two-hour lecture "African Genesis" . He explains a lot of the subject matter from his book "African Unconscious" .  In short, Dr. Bynum says white culture has a difficult time reconciling African civilization was the first civilization to discover everything from writing to spirituality.  He says it was so difficult for Europeans to attribute the discovery of mathematics, astronomy, writing, measurement et al; they, through academics, began to identify the first civilization as white people from Egypt or they attributed the discoveries to Greeks and Romans.

Of course today we know that would be biologically impossible for white skin to exist in Africa but the idea still persist. He also clarifies Egypt was occupied by Africans from the west who had migrated there due to a change in landscape in the sub-Saharan region.   I learned about this migration through the National Geographic Genographic project - which clearly outlines the journey out of Africa ... 

 Anyway, here's an excerpt from his book "African Unconscious" 

"Recall that prior to 25,000 to 30,000 years ago all Homo Sapiens were Black and that racial diversification as we think of it today, had not yet begun.  The present day implication of this, of course, is that beneath the wealth of contents in our shared or multicultural unconscious the primordial essence and genetic roots of our African dynamism dwells.  (Carl Gustav) Jung felt  this deeper racial memory as his bedrock memory and it unfolded within him a great peace and sense of unity between all peoples of this planet.   Many people have had similar experiences and insights.  

This repression of the primordial African Unconscious is an act of represssion not only in Europe but also Eurocentric science.  It might be thought of as the collective  "threatened  return of the repressed."
 

 

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I got the kindle version of "African Unconscious"  and as I'm reading it - I'm beginning to realize the "threatened return of the repressed" isn't limited to whites many direct descendants of Africa struggle with their own origin... I hear it our  "us versus them"  conversations.  it is exhibited in 
"I'm not like those kind of blacks" type mentality.    I hadn't thought of how some of us have our own internal struggle with being black...but once you hear/see it is hard not recognize it in your own.   

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  • 2 weeks later...

I guess white people death is a hot topic...  Someone shared this on article on twitter -- and although it is my conclusion - it seems as though hate and separation kills 

https://medium.com/@CommonwealthFund/the-untold-story-why-middle-aged-white-people-are-dying-at-higher-rates-fa5b9f76f2f#.xk4n8cyh9  

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LOL I, for one,  am not suicidal.  But I do have an external struggle with being black because the race itself seems to be suicidal, bent on destroying its young  via violence. The longer you live, the more disappointed you become with the situation that never seems to go away. Or am I consumed with self-hate which I consider a psycho-babble term thrown around by those who want to put people in boxes. I don't hate myself and I also have no desire whatever to be white.  I  just want my people to get it together and not burden themselves with a lot of extra baggage by dropping out of school and having more children than they can manage. Racism is of course pretty entrenched so you have to arm yourself with the tools that will allow you to co-exist with it. Such is life.

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I think it should be noted that a lot of Black people are suicidal but they tend to be so religious or fear going to hell that they tend not to carry it out as often as Whites.

As Troy alluded to, they kill themselves in a lot of indirect ways like drinking too much, picking fights with people, not caring about their health and future.

I also believe many of these latest police shootings are actually "suicide by cop".

 

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Sara

Since most "murder by cops" are pretty much confined to the North, what about lynchings in the South. Were they actually "suicide by white mob?"


????
I didn't know cop killings were confined to the north.

From the news I'm getting, it's occuring all over the nation.
Look at what happened to Sandra Bland, and before that the shooting caught on camera in South Carolina.


 

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Xeon

Sarah Bland was not shot nor killed by the police. Her demise occurred while held in custody in the Waller County jail. The sheriffs dept runs the country jails -not the police.


Thanks for pointing out what I already know.
Now let me point out something you may NOT know.
The term "cop" comes from the COPPER badge worn by most law enforcement officals.

Take a look at the badge of the Waller County Sherrif's Department where Ms Bland died:


1114986_630x354.jpg


What COLOR is that star?

Deputies are considered "cops" too whether inside or outside of jail.


 

 

 

 

 




Sara

Sandra Bland was not shot down like a dog in the streets by the Texas cop. Now what happened to her in jail is something different. But then, we aren't talking about "killed while incarcerated" are we?


Well I'm not sure....
When you said "murder by cop" I didn't know your definition of murder is only when a life is taken OUTSIDE of an actual building.



Cops kill blacks in the North. It has been going on since at least the 1950's (first caught a whiff of it from a rerun of a Dick Cavett, Merv Griffith, somebody Show where Dick Gregory brought it to my attention). Blacks in the South are more likely to be killed by ordinary white citizens than white cops. Not so in the north.

To repeat: You stated your belief that many of the blacks killed by cops committed "suicide by cop." If that is the case, is it your belief that most black lynchings were "suicide by white mob?"


Nice try.
But I'm not going let you try to take the focus off of and wiggle your way out of your statement of "murder by cop" being confined to the North.

Take a look at this site that maps cop killings of Black people in 2015:


http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/


I see a diversity of regions that includes the North, South, West Coast.......

All it takes is a quick 45 second search on Google to refute your claim that police shootings of Black people are "confined" to the North.

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Why are we debating about whether or not Sandra Bland was murdered by "cops"?  She is gone, how can those circumstances not happen again?

I did not know that about the origin of the word "cop"  Thank you @Pioneer1

Consider this,

Many African Americans are deeply spiritual thus, giving them an understanding of spirit, and assistance coming from a metaphysical realm.  This can often allow African Americans to weigh the concept of death, and the afterlife in a different respect than some cultures.  Eventually hardships, even the hardest ones, give way to rainbows....thats just in the spiritual balance of things.  Maybe thats why the suicide rate is lower. 

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Chasitie

I did not know that about the origin of the word "cop" Thank you @Pioneer1 !


You're more than welcome.

Another bit of info.....

If you look the term Police Officer....it's actually related to the term POLICY OVER SEER.
Note how similar they sound.





Miss Sour Grapes  Sara


One more bit of deflection like this and we'll know you're interested in neither convo nor sharing knowledge rather you're using this forum to fill up all that unproductive time you have on your hands.


One more overly emotional response from you for statements directed at Xeon and WE'LL start believing that you and Xeon may infact be the same person....lol.

 

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On 2/23/2016 at 8:39 PM, Pioneer1 said:

The term "cop" comes from the COPPER badge worn by most law enforcement officals.

 I've always heard that cop stands for Constable On Patrol.  (Constable is an old term for a law officer)

There are many explanations for what this acronym stands for.  In England, they say it has to do with the Bobbies having copper buttons on their uniform.  

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It doesn't make a lot of sense to me that with the hell so many people have been catching these past 7 years in urban areas....from mass joblessness and loss of property resulting form the '08 financial crisis, to so many well publicized cases of police executing people, as well as a general increase in crime and homelessness in certain big cities.....that the Black suicide rate would magically drop.

Like Dr Umar Johnson and certain other Black psychologists, I too question many of these statistics.
Who's doing them?
What are they calling "suicide"?

Spirits soared in the Black community directly after Obama took office.
But hopelessness and despire have been pretty high in Black America these past 4 or 5 years because of his indifferent or inept social policies.

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