TAMPA, Fla. — A conversation is spreading across the country among Black men. The goal is to push men beyond survival and toward thriving. The multi-city tour is called Just Heal, Bro.
“We were not meant to do life alone. Babies die for lack of touch. We understand the reality of a solitary confinement. 24 hours without human contact, it literally starts to change the shape of your brain,” Lawrence Adjah, panelist for Just Heal, Bro, said.
Adjah said fellow host, Dr. Jay Barnett, wrote a book on the push. Here’s why: According to the CDC the rate of suicide among Black men and boys is increasing.
In 2020, suicide was the third leading cause of death, respectively, for Blacks or African Americans, ages 15 to 24. The death rate from suicide for Black or African American men was four times greater than for African American women, in 2018.
“We’re often very dutiful, very sacrificial in our love for our families and for others. And sometimes we come last in terms of caring for ourselves,” Adjah said.
Adjah said there’s little motivation to speak up, so some men speak around their thoughts.
“They mediate their needs within the lens of what a woman can hear or handle,” Adjah said.
Adjah said this is a global goal that pushes strength through vulnerability. Health through healing, and relationship through shared experience.
“We need to be connected to know that I am not alone,” Adjah said. “We are each other’s greatest asset.”
For more information on Just Heal, Bro, visit the tour's website.