My Mental Health

Monday 28th February 2022

Hey Everyone! It's the last day of February. Therefore it is also the last day of Black History Month. Honestly on my side, this month has been a little bit of a bust. From Tiktok making a black creator event with Nicki Minaj (who was just defending Jesy Nelson during her blackfishing scandal back in October). Companies moving events and opportunities for black speakers and creators to the next month to avoid seeming as though they only did it for Black History Month ( a very roundabout way of "staying woke"). Miss USA's Cheslie Kryst's untimely death. American Vogue's decision to NOT put a black person on the cover and instead prelease photos of (the master of cultural appropriation) Kim Kardashian's March Cover where she copies iconic Black model poses and photoshoots. The NAACP Awards nominating Awkwafina, an asian woman who profited off cultural appropriation, black sterotypes and having a blaccent. The owner of Fubu (a black company) releasing an all-inclusive campaign that featured white models on the email send-outs and social media, and black models only on social media (to a lesser degree even then) and when asked about it, conflated creating spaces and brands that prioritised the black representation with being non-inclusive and/or racist to other racial groups. To finally the month ending with racist discourse concerning the potential Russia-Ukraine war and how it's impossible for non-majority countries to experience war (Please take note of my sarcasm) according to some journalists and news outlets.

So I've been exhausted. I have felt the need to research, stay up to date and learn all I can about racism, racial bias and how history has shaped our today. I even subscribed to 28 days of Black History so that I could learn more about positive things that had occured and more about other black inspiring leaders, artists, intellectuals and creators. I seeked out black majority conferences and came across The Boyd Initiative which @theericklouis recommended on tiktok. There were Black Girls Code events even though I couldn't attend. For the first time ever I actually learnt how to use Twitter (thanks to Angus Cloud's tweets on Euphoria). Euphoria race and queer representation analysis has been amazing on my tiktok for you page (definitely check out: @mustbemaia ; @trisa_3 ; @liveauthentic_ ) and political discourse by @ _lyneezy ; @chrystheauthor ; @ravenreveals ; @akaclouise ; @milfluvjae ; @victoriaalxndr has really blown mind this past month. The recent podcast episodes such as Being a Minority at a PWI with Hellen were such much a great way to release my frustrations with racism. Even reading White Fragility this month helped me learn even more about how to engage in the topic with people who find it difficult to talk about race.

That being said, I am exhausted. I have been finding it incredibly difficult to maintain my mental health this month. I had so much planned fir this month and ended up biting off more than I could chew. So I will be prosponing the articles I promised until later through out the year. Learning about racism has been alot more triggering than I could habe ever imagine and unfortunately I failed to plan around that. This is a reminder to always check up on yourself and make sure that you maintain your mental health. So I will be taking a little hiatus until March 8th and I promise to have more variety I'm the topics I explore while still presenting the topics that I had promised such as the one on Black mental health. I also hope to be just a little more personal whenever talking to you guys.

So until then

Zukiswa