“Is It Suicide or Genocide?”: Black Female Clinicians’ Critical Understandings of Shame and Other Related Themes to Suicide in Black Communities

Abstract

<i>Suicide is a complex, multi-factorial human experience that affects millions of people in the U.S. and disproportionately impacts Black communities every year. Historical data, critical theories, and research literature indicate that Black suicides result from interactions between macrosystemic systemic forces and individual-level meaning-making processes. To explore the complexities among systemic forces and deaths often labelled suicides in contemporary U.S. Black communities, this project centered and elevated the critical perspectives of fourteen Black female clinicians. Because of their marginalized identities, intersectional lived experiences, and clinical training, these participants were well-positioned to analyze and understand the degrees to which suicides in Black communities are associated with oppressive macrosystemic dynamics and/or individual-level psychological factors. Narrative inquiry and thematic analysis underscored the interplay among six thematic characters for critically understanding suicide in Black communities: shame, hopelessness, trauma, racism, systemic problems, and fear. Participants also noted that violence, anger, and guilt shaped their perspectives to a lesser degree. To address these themes’ suicide-potentiating effects on Black communities, I discuss language, research, policy, and psychosocial assessment and intervention implications.</i>