Reality Beneath the Surface

 Treasure Garner 

ENGL 2016

Ms. Harris

17 November 2022

Reality Beneath The Surface

The Black culture. Culture consists of elements that makes up a nation; it is the foundation of a united group of people. In reference to Black culture, I am referring to Africans, African Americans, and all Black communities. The Black culture has taken on elements since the period of enslavement. These elements stem from the ideology of the Black Gothic. The Black Gothic is a genre within academic literature and visuals. It is the process of experiencing spiritual, traumatic, and horror circumstances as well as healing and overcoming breakthroughs. To bring acknowledgment to the elements that have been brought on stemmed through the Black Gothic from the years of the enslavement of our ancestors by looking through the lens of spirituality and mental health. 

Spirituality is widely permeated within the Black culture and community. Dr. Carter in his work he explained the importance of spirituality he stated that “religion/spirituality is an integral part of all sociocultural systems…(Carter)”. When referring to spirituality, it is not just Christianity, but also Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Islamic, and many others. Looking at the Black Gothic through the lens of spirituality, the element that proceeded to form over many years and generations is the discipline of tradition. This does not mean that traditions are bad. It means that once a tradition is so ingrained into a particular culture that if an individual sees fit to “stray away” or find their own path then it becomes a problematic thing. We see this in Daughter of the Dust. When half of the family was targeting Yellow Mary because she decided it would be best to leave her family in the beginning. The organization American Society did research on African American families and they noticed that “family reunions are important rituals that have long contributed to the survival, health, and endurance of African American families, helping to maintain cultural heritage even in uncertain and turbulent times(A.S.)”  During the times of enslavement, our ancestor’s homes, families, lives, and properties were taken away from them. The only thing they had was their spirituality to get them through. And so, with this the belief system of most people within the Black community has made it the “norm” within the Black culture. This is in alignment with the Black Gothic because a single individual going through the process of choosing the spirituality that they desire or maybe would rather not have versus choosing their spirituality based on their family choses brings on the impacts of fear even horror to not be able to belong to a group of people that raised you.

Mental health has always been an issue within the Black community. The company, Mental Health America, did a study on African Americans and their well being mentally. Through their research, they discovered that “overall, mental health conditions occur in Black and African American (B/AA) people in America at about the same or less frequency than in White Americans (MHA).”From enslavement times to today, I find the hesitancy within most black communities to reach beyond in fear of not being good enough or being controlled. Many times have I witnessed and experienced the idea of portraying oneself as perfect while not actually being perfectly fine. These instances bring on the element of oppression in all Black communities. In Commander's piece of referring to the former slaves, she expressed that the trial of being on the ship and the amount of oppression that was overbearing, not just physically, but mentally, where the former slaves jumped off the ship (Commander). This aligns with the Black Gothic because oppression is one of the ways an individual can surpass or remain beneath.

In conclusion, spirituality and mental health have produced the elements of oppression and the discipline of tradition. As of today, there are no clear decisions to be made, but the one thing we as a society can do is support one another through it all. In the eyes of Sharpe in her piece Wake Work, she said. “If we are lucky, the knowledge of this posi- tioning avails us particular ways of re/seeing, re/inhabiting, and re/ imagining the world( Sharpe ,22).”









Works Cited

Black and African American communities and Mental Health. Mental Health America. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2022, from https://www.mhanational.org/issues/black-and-african-american-communities-and-mental-health 

Carter, J. H. (2002, May). Religion/spirituality in African-American culture: An essential aspect of psychiatric care. Journal of the National Medical Association. Retrieved November 17, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2594329/ 

Commander, M. D. (2017). Afro-Atlantic Flight: Speculative returns and the Black Fantastic. Duke University Press. 

McCoy, R., Butts, D., Hill, R., Mays, W., & Blascyk, D. (2021, January 6). African American Elders Traditions Family Reunion. ASA Generations. Retrieved November 17, 2022, from https://generations.asaging.org/african-american-elders-traditions-family-reunion 

Sharpe, C. (2016). In the wake on blackness and being. Duke University Press. 

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