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NEW YORK (AP) – Naomi Osaka. Simone Bilès. Both are prominent young black women under the pressure of a world Olympic projector that few humans know. The two faced major career crossroads at the Tokyo Games. Both cited pressure and sanity.
The dazzling is even more intense for these black women given that after years of sacrifice and preparation, they are expected to perform, to be strong, to be successful. They have to work harder for recognition and are often judged more harshly than others when they do not meet the public’s expectations.
So when New York resident Natelegé Whaley heard that black female athletes competing in the Tokyo Olympics were asserting their right to take care of their mental health, despite the pressure to perform in a world abroad, she took a special note.
“It’s powerful,” said Whaley, who is black. “They are leading the way and changing the way we view athletes as human beings, and also black women as human beings.”
Being a young black woman – which in American life comes with its own intrinsic pressure to perform – involves a lot more than it looks, according to several black women and activists who spoke to The Associated Press .
The Tokyo Games show signs of the end of an era – a time in which black women on the world stage give so much of themselves that they have little or nothing left, said Patrisse Cullors, a activist and author who co-founded Black Lives. Movement of matter eight years ago.
“Black women are not going to die (for public acceptance). We will no longer be martyrs, ”said Cullors, who has stepped down from his role. as director of a non-profit BLM foundation in May. “A gold medal is not worth someone losing their mind. I listen to Simone and hear her say, “I’m more important than this competition.”
She added: “Activism and organizing is just one of the contributions that I have made. And we all need to know when it’s enough for us. “
Biles’ message also resonated with Whaley, who co-created a series of events in New York called Brooklyn Recess to preserve the culture of Double Dutch, a skipping sport popular in black communities. Early on, Whaley and her co-creator Naima Moore-Turner found that they talked a lot about an element of mental health in their events.
“People will say, ‘Let black women rule, because they know,'” said Whaley, a 32-year-old freelance race and culture writer.
“It’s like (black women) don’t know because we’re some kind of special humans who are supernatural,” she said. “It’s because we live at these intersections where we have no choice but to know.
ATHLETES AT THE FOREFRONT
The world’s greatest living Olympian, swimmer Michael Phelps, has been credited with elevating a conversation about sports and mental health. But when Phelps hung up his glasses five years ago, he was less likely to be weighed down by chronic health disparities, sexual violence, police brutality and discrimination in the workplace than black women, famous or not. , undergo daily.
Yet black female Olympians, echoed by many of their sisters in the United States and around the world, have stepped forward and said they need to protect their mental health. They did not ask for sympathy or permission. They demanded that people respect their decisions and let them be.
“I say put mental health first because if you don’t, you’re not going to enjoy your sport and you’re not going to be as successful as you want,” Biles, 24, said after s ‘to be withdrawn from the competition. women’s team gymnastics final on July 27. Before the Tokyo Games, she was already the most decorated American gymnast of modern times.
Prioritizing mental well-being “shows how strong a competitor and a person are, rather than just fighting,” she said.
Biles won a bronze medal on the balance beam on Tuesday.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka, 23, first raised concerns about her mental health in June when she avoided speaking to the press at the French Open, and eventually withdrew from competition until the Tokyo Games. Although Osaka was eliminated from the competition for the Olympic medals, she reiterated her concern for her own well-being.
“I really feel like there was a lot of pressure for that,” Osaka said after the Olympic loss. A few weeks earlier, she had written an editorial for Time magazine in which she said, “It’s good not to be well, and it’s good to talk about it.”
Some of these attitudes may be related to age. Many young people feel empowered to talk about mental health in ways that previous generations did not.
Biles and Osaka, born months apart in 1997, are Gen Z, the first generation whose entire lives have been online. Gen Z is notably more open about mental health issues, said Nicole O’Hare, a certified counselor in the Phoenix area.
“It’s so beautiful to see this kind of normalization of mental health and to ask for help,” O’Hare said. “They really push that barrier and say I can’t, I need help, I’m struggling, I need support. … If we really listen to what they ask, we can hear a lot.
MEET MORE CHALLENGES
Even with the escalation of discussions, neglecting the mental and emotional well-being of black women is far from new.
Before the abolition of slavery, enslaved black women rarely had authority over their bodies or families. They were the nurses of the wives of the slavers, objectified for sexual desires and forced to work hard in the fields and houses without credit for successes or innovations. After the abolition of slavery in 1865, black women gained the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, 50 years after black men.
More recently, the mental health of black women is likely to be affected by health and socio-economic disparities. African American women have a maternal mortality rate three times higher than white women and are more likely to report not being believed when seeking pain treatment from healthcare professionals.
If they are architects and leaders of the modern movement against police violence, black women are also victims. And with various studies showing that blacks are up to three times more likely than whites to be shot by police, black women more often mourn the loss of family members or close friends to violence. policewoman.
They are also more likely to experience sexual assault in their lifetime, an issue that likely resonates with Biles, who said he was assaulted by Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor convicted of criminal sexual conduct with minors. And in the workplace, black women are paid between 48 and 68 cents for every dollar paid to a white man, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.
At the US Open last year, after a summer of protests and civil unrest, Osaka had the names of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and other black Americans killed by police or vigilantes sporting masks facial.
But such activism is not a burden on black women alone, Cullors said, adding that they might just put themselves first if that’s what they see best.
The message also resonates beyond well-known figures like Cullors. Liz Dwyer, a black woman who is a writer and editor in Los Angeles, celebrated Biles on Twitter and said that “black women are no longer willing to be the mule of mental health.”
“Society as a whole benefits from the work we do,” Dwyer said. “And yet racism and sexism, worrying about the rise in hate crimes, worrying about the safety of your kids, worrying about your kids being profiled and put in the pipeline from school to school. prison… it’s all wreaking havoc. “
Melanie Campbell, President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and host of the Black Women’s Roundtable, is from a different generation than Biles and Osaka. She said she was inspired by their leadership in mental health.
“It motivates me to continue standing up for civil rights, because you see this generation is stepping up,” said Campbell, who was recently arrested while engaging in civil disobedience during a campaign for the right. vote by black women.
“We all have a role to play,” she said. “I can talk about these issues and stay who I am. “
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Morrison and Hajela reported from New York. Galvan reported from El Paso, Texas. All three authors are members of the AP Race and Ethnicity team. More AP: https://apnews.com/hub/2020-tokyo-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
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