I don’t know who made the strong black stereotype but it needs to be tossed out the window ASAP. Therapy in the black community in general is frowned upon and it’s taking a toll on the black community. We won’t even start on how systematic racism created mass incarceration in the community but let’s just stop at vulnerability.

For some reason whomever built society’s structure, they put strong and black men right next to each other. Black men do not have to be the pillars holding themselves and the family together. It’s okay to ask for help without being looked down upon. Asking anyone to be the safety net for their entire community is taxing. It also works the other way around. Black women do not need to be a safety net because waiting for something or someone to catch you is unhealthy and everyone should be directed to therapy with that mindset. You should feel safe with your significant other but there are not enough capes for everyone to constantly save people with no outlet. I’m certain even your favorite superheroes sought therapy as therapy isn’t a weakness. It’s a strength to show that it’s not healthy to carry everyone’s load by one’s self.

Black men need to be cherished and held even when they don’t want to be as even in the twenty first century we quietly hold our breaths when they walk out the house afraid for the worst. Current events show that no matter how polite, alternative, nerdy, hood, or empathic the black man is, he is still a threat because of his skin and as a black woman with brothers and a father, that scares me more than any haunted house or demon.

I grew up watching my mother treat my father like a king and now I understand more than ever. The years may have changed but my mom probably watched her mother treat her father well and that’s one thing that was passed on. Black men deal with racial profiling, education disparities, and stereotypes put in place by oppressors centuries ago. Our men have grew tired of trying to reach the finish line while the goal was changed mid game and they have every right to be mad.

It’s not overreacting or reaching if we turn on the news every other day to discover another unarmed black man was gunned down. Society will not become numb to it and it will make me hold black men closer as I understand their struggles and plight. We can’t expect the world from anyone and not give them the tools to reach it.