Police Brutality Affects The Mental Health Of Black Youth...

The existence of police brutality affects the mental health of Black youth, in regards to heightened depression and suicidal ideation. Even though people of color in the United States make up less than 38% of the population, almost half of all people killed by police are minorities and more than half are unarmed victims (The Guardian 2015). According to Mapping Police Violence, law enforcement has killed at least 263 Black individuals in 2016 including adolescents; 346 Black Americans were killed the previous year (2016). There has also been an increase in capturing these police shootings on film and then posting to social media for users to view soon thereafter. Black youth in the United States are exposed to this violence through a variety of outlets, such as news reports, social media and their personal encounters with police. The never-ending replays of unarmed Black citizens being shot to death by police officers is traumatizing and induces a constant state of fear that renders Black people hopeless for a country that will perceive their lives as equal and deserving of justice as non-minority individuals. As I witnessed the videos and sound recordings of the police killings of these Black youth: Trayvon Martin, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and Darnisha Harris, I, too, lost hope for racial equality and developed a fear of law enforcement that still exists to this day. These emotions are quite common amongst Black youth, yet the presence of such isShow MoreRelatedEffects Of Racism1095 Words   |  5 PagesRacism is an individual, institutional, and societal issue that negatively affects the lives of many African-Americans. Structural racism is a term used to describe the institutional and societal levels of racism. 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