Daily Obama: The Obama Girls and Affirmative Action

Good Op-Ed piece about the Obama girls and how they will or won't benefit from Affirmative Action. The author raises good points about the fact that the girls won't have as much of a challenge getting into whatever college they want but it won't be because of their race---it will be because of their class and who their parents are.

I do agree that while race is still a problem in this country, it's class that blocks or allows people to go to college. Like Obama says in the article, there are plenty of poor white children who can't afford to go to school in this country.

A Question Of Race Vs. ClassAffirmative Action For the Obama Girls?
By Eugene RobinsonTuesday, May 15, 2007; A15

Barack Obama doesn't think anyone should cut his two daughters any slack when they apply to college -- not because of their race, at least. In the unlikely event that the Obama family goes broke, then maybe.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Obama waded into the central issue of the affirmative action debate: race vs. class. Perhaps typically, Obama's remarks were more Socratic than declarative. He didn't really answer the question, he rephrased it. Maybe the way he posed it, though, will lead to a discussion that's long overdue.

George Stephanopoulos asked Obama whether his daughters should be able to benefit from affirmative action when the time comes for them to go to college. The girls "should probably be treated by any admissions officer as folks who are pretty advantaged," Obama said.

Stephanopoulos was driving at the question of whether race-based affirmative action programs are still needed. Another way to frame the issue is whether race or class is the more important factor in our society. Are minorities who are raised in middle-class or wealthy homes still held back by racism? Or should we now focus on socioeconomic status as the principal barrier keeping people from reaching their potential?

Obama's answer, basically, was yes. To both questions.

Obama has repeatedly gone on record as a supporter of affirmative action. But "if we have done what needs to be done to ensure that kids who are qualified to go to college can afford it," he said in the ABC interview, "affirmative action becomes a diminishing tool for us to achieve racial equality in this society."

He seemed to side with those who think class predominates when he said, "I think that we should take into account white kids who have been disadvantaged and have grown up in poverty and shown themselves to have what it takes to succeed."

It's hard to disagree with that proposition, especially as economic inequality worsens in this country. Harvard University (where Obama went to law school) has taken the lead in guaranteeing that money will not be an obstacle for qualified low-income students.

But Obama seemed to agree with those who point to the lingering effects of racism when he noted that "there are a lot of African American kids who are still struggling, that even those who are in the middle class may be first-generation as opposed to fifth- or sixth-generation college attendees, and that we all have an interest in bringing as many people together to help build this country."

That observation points to circumstances that have to be taken into account. Diversity, in my view, is very much in the national interest. But diversity is a process, not a destination. We have to keep working at it. And since a college degree has become the great divider between those who make it in this society and those who don't, affirmative action in college admissions is one of the most powerful tools we have to increase diversity.

The formal separate-but-equal framework is long gone, but de facto separation and inequality persist. Minority students are disproportionately disadvantaged by having to attend substandard primary and secondary schools. Their parents are less likely to have attended college and thus may not be familiar with all the things parents have to do to make their children competitive when it comes time to apply for college admission. And while racism is not the institutional and legal straitjacket it was 50 years ago, it persists in subtler yet still pernicious forms.

Yes, class is important. But race is, too, and while I hope we eventually get to the point where race is irrelevant, we still have a long way to go.

As for Obama's assessment of his daughters' privileged status, that's just a statement of the obvious. With such Type A, high-wattage parents, those girls probably will have the grades and test scores to get into any college. And if they don't, they will benefit from a different affirmative action program -- one that for many generations has ushered the academically undistinguished scions of prominent families into the nation's most selective colleges and universities.

Let's not pretend that college admissions has ever been a level playing field. Obama graduated from Columbia; his wife, Michelle, from Princeton. This means that at those two Ivy League schools, their daughters will be "legacy" applicants, just like George W. Bush was at Yale and legions of Kennedys have been at Harvard. Given the Obamas' power and fame, admissions officers at the schools they attended -- and probably at other elite schools, too -- are going to find a way to let the Obama girls in.

sigh...DL on Don Imus

i can't deal.


it wasn't right when Imus said it, and it's not cool when DL Hughley says it either.

and there's no reason why he should be bashing our women on a national television like that.


we need to get rid of this double standard bullsh*t.

Black people, what the hell are we thinking

For those of you who don't know me, I refer to myself as a post-millenium Womanist. When I was in undergrad, I focused heavily on literature concerning critical race theory and gender studies. For one of my final reseearch papers, I wrote about hip hop feminism and how the onus is on women to change the way we are portrayed in the media. The superheads of the world are popular because we make them popular, we make it okay for Black women to exploit themselves sexually and to be exploited.

But when I saw this video, I realized for the millionth time that it starts in the home. about 45 seconds into this music video for Huey's Pop, Lock and Drop it, you see 8 and 9 year old girls doing exactly that--pop, lock, and dropping it.

I thought I had seen it all. Why is this considered acceptable behavior?

I remember when I had gone shopping about a month ago and I saw a 4 year old girl wiggling her little behind and getting into what the kids call a "3-point stance." Her mother was no where to be found.

Who is teaching our girls that being that sexual at that young of an age is cute? Why are we letting them grow up so fast?

Why do we allow adults to act that way in front of them? Because of course they're learning this at home.

I am a strong believer in girls' advocacy. I think female reproductive health is very important, but what's even more important is stressing maturity--8 years old is just too young for a little girl to be dancing that way. There is nothing cute or charming about a young black girl dancin like she's a stripper and actin like she's doin a tip drill.

A friend of mine suggested that I write a letter to BET. Not that he thought they'd actually pull the video but so that they know that at least one Black woman doesn't tolerate it. But herein lies the dilemma: I know in my mind that this song is degrading to women, with bow wow being heard in the remix tellin a woman to shake her ass and "if you not doin it for me, then do it for these dollahs." I know this song is terrible and that it's just another way that we disrespect each other. I know this, and yet when I was in H2O the other weekend with my girls and a few guys I was the first one cuttin a serious rug when the dj started playing this single. It isn't something I'm proud of, it isn't something I excuse or justify, but I think it's the dilemma that all women face. It is deplorable, and yet we can't get away from that beat.

But I digress. It's time that we stop talking about how f*cked up white kids are and look at our own children and what we're teaching them. We need to stop making videos like this one of our children and passing it off like it's cute.

It's not cute now, nor has it ever been.

am i wrong for hopin the girl can read?

i mean....it's cool that she can dance....but i hope she's putting as much attention into her books as she is into walkin it out.

do they have her A+ tests on the refrigerator?

the ONLY Don Imus post that matters.

So as most of you know, Don Imus came under fire for his calling the Rutgers Women's Basketball team "nappy headed ho's" among other things (Click here if you have been living under a rock).

He's gotten a lot of flack for the comments...being called a racist, being called a sexist, and recently being taken off the air for two weeks.

Do I think he should be fired? absolutely not. I don't think they were meant to be hateful comments. I do think they were inappropriate, and probably offensive, but I also think this brings up the same type of issue the Michael Richards n-bomb fiasco brings up, and that is this: maybe we, Black people, need to stop calling our women hoes.

I realize that not using the N-word--even if it ends in an 'a'--won't change the racist attitudes of some white people--but it bothers me that when a black man calls a black woman a hoe we look the other way, but let a white man say the same thing to a black woman and it's a travesty.

Tell me, why do we hold white people to a higher standard than we hold ourselves?

I'm not really even talking about the references to bitches and hoes in hip hop--i think that's talked about enough--but this is about every day references to black women as hoes.

Just the other day one of my male friends said he doesn't buy drinks for "hoes in the club"

i've heard "there were some fine hoes there"

"this hoe jus rolled up on me"

and I'm sure there is a black man out there callin his sister/wife/girlfriend/jumpoff etc. a "nappy headed-hoe."

The point is, before we get on a white shock jock's case for degrading our women, maybe we need to check ourselves first.


And that is ALL I am going to say about that.

Trumpet Awards: the best award show you've never heard of.

I kid you not.

I guarantee you that if you are reading this, you are one of the thousands if not millions of people who have never heard of the Trumpet Awards. This is an award show thatacknowledges the accomplishments of men and women who have significantly contributed to enhancing the quality of life for all. If you click on the hypertext you can see the website for the Trumpet Foundation.

Anyways, really great awards program. But it is so overrated. It was taped in January but they showed it just this past Sunday on TVOne. It is absolutely the most important and well-done awards show that you probably have never seen or even heard of. Important because you get to see African Americans honored for things other than entertainment and sports. Well done because, unlike other Black awards shows (Source Awards come to mind) it was so classy and professional.

The Trumpet awards philanthropists, scientists, businessmen, actors, singers, artists, etc. There is a focus, however on those figures who do good in the community and not just do their respective trades well. I think too often African-Americans are awarded for their talents and not enough for their work int he community, and that's unfortunate. That's why the Trumpet Awards needs more publicity.

In addition, why is this showing on TVOne and not BET?

but that is a WHOLE 'notha topic.

Before I wrap this up, check out Concrete Loop for pics from the event.

Obi, this one is for you.

Malcolm Gladwell

I'm sure I'm later than a Black wedding, but I just recently heard this speech this speech by writer Malcolm Gladwell, where he's talking about hit engineering (ie, what makes songs a hit? why does the public like and dislike certain songs? how does a hit make us feel?)

I think his book "the Tipping Point" is next up on my "books to read" list.

I realize i ride pretty hard for nerdy Black men.

Homecoming.

This Christmas will actually be the first one I spend with my east coast fam since I was at least 7 years old. I'm excited, but I think I'm also a little sad. My childhood friends like to say, "You're so east coast!" whenever I come back from DC. Sometimes I wonder if it's because I've been away for that long or if it's really that I've "adapted" to life in the DC Metro. Have I REALLY traded my flip flops for timbs and hightops? Nah, not really. I'm still a Cali girl at heart. I miss the Chuck Taylors with the fat white laces. I get hype when they play old school Snoop in the clubs out here. I like my latte with soy milk. I still get slightly irritated when it's below 60 degrees outside. And sometimes I am still amused with how many people don't drive out here. As comfortable as I am with Washington, I find that I miss home a lot, even when I don't want to admit it. I miss Los Angeles "staples"--Venice, In and Out, Coffee Bean, Roscoes, Poetry and jazz sessions in Leimert, Watts Towers, stilettos and cellphones in Beverly Hills. I miss palm trees in the middle of December. I even miss the long bus ride on the 210 to my high school sometimes.

But the more I think about it, it may have been easier to adjust to DC since much of my family's roots are here. My mother grew up in Southeast, my father in Northwest. I mentioned in my last entry that I was contacted by my cousin, who has been researching his family history for ten years. I learned some things I hadn't known about before, and a few things I had wondered about but hadn't gotten answers about. For instance, it was confirmed that my father's side of the family had migrated to DC from the Carolinas and Virginia, respectively. Talking with my grandmother and with my cousin about our family history, I learned we can trace our family as far as Frances Simmons, who was a sharecropper like many Blacks after the Civil War.

Some of my relatives live in a house in Northeast Washington DC. When I was there for a small family gathering in April, it was mentioned that the house had been in the family since the 1890s. My great-great grandmother owned that house in during those years; she was a stenographer, while her husband was an insurance broker.

All of this begs the question--knowing that my great-great grandmother moved to Washington circa 1919-1920 (the tail end of the Great Migration)...knowing that my fam has roots in Virginia and the Carolinas...knowing that some of us got to the Carolinas by way of Haiti...where were we before then? The easiest answer is Africa, but I can't help but wonder where in Africa. It's one thing to guess or hypothesize, it's completely different to really know.

When I spoke with my cousin, I asked about if he had been able to research past the late 1800s. He said that the hardest part is the disconnect caused by slavery--before Reconstruction, most Black folks were recorded as "property" so birth records and Census data would not have accounted for that. Family units were divided again and again as slaves were bought, sold and sometimes killed. As a result, the familial bond was oftentimes broken. "It's possible though," he said in a more hopeful tone. "It would take more work, but if your Grandmother and I keep talking and researching--and if you keep doing the same and keep learning more--maybe we can get more questions answered."

For Black families, researching family history can be both frustrating and painful. Frustrating because our history of slavery and opporession makes it even harder to reach conclusions about where our roots really begin. Painful because--as with any family of any race--there will always be questions that some family members would rather be left unanswered. But just beginning to talk about things as simple as when your grandmother moved into her house or where your aunt went to college can spark a conversation about why your family is the way they are. Taking the time to talk about things that are not-so-pleasant as well as the good memories and anecdotes is just part of the "healing process" if you will. It's one of the first steps in strengthening the familial bond that we've lost in our past.

Knowing where you came from

I received the following email today from a cousin I haven't even met:

I am your cousin.
I am going to do a relationship chart to show you how we are related:

James and Bessie Dixon
children:
Miriam =Sisters=Bessie
Michael =1st cousins= Jacqueline
Anthony = 2nd cousins= John
Angel =3rd cousins= Lauren

I just wanted to contact you because we are cousins and we are the same age. you were born in Feb. and I was born in April. Just give me a call so we can stay in touch.

all this time I was thinking that I didn't have any cousins who were the same age as me, and then I find out that I actually do and not only that, we used to live practically around the corner from each other! He's been researching his family lineage for ten years now; his father is my grandmother's cousin. Apparently, he can trace our family back to Norfolk, Virginia in the late 19th century. This is very exciting and it makes me want to learn more about my family's history; I only know bits from talking to the older relatives and from my own research on my great-grandmother's life.

He's coming to DC in a few weeks, so we'll actually be able to meet face to face.

This will be continued...what a way to end the night...

How to Write about Africa by Binyavanga Wainaina

I grew up in a community where I was taught that Africans were so incredibly different from African Americans that there was no way we could ever get along and understand each other. I remember my mother telling me never to marry and African man and the kids on the playground calling the one African kid in the class an "African Booty Scratcher." I remember seeing the images of poor African children in the charity commercials as a kid and wondering if they were any different from poor Black children here, or if there were even any children in America who lived like that. I kept thinking, "why does Africa always seem so sad? This can't be true."

I didn't realize that these stereotypes weren't true until I actually moved to DC that I really started to see that the generalizations I had been socialized to believe about Africa and about the African experience were just that. I met Nigerians, Ethiopians, Ghanaians, Chadians. I met folks from Senegal who spoke fluent French and would exchange a phrase or two with me. I met cool ass Ghanaians who could rap with me about 50 Cent and Phyllis Wheatley. I started listening to Fela Kuti and met folks from Nigeria who would joke with me and ask "whatchu know about Fela?"

The following piece is a prose-poem written by Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina. A good friend of mine is a Nigerian brotha who I've talked about Pan-African idea(l)s with from time to time. He shared the following prose-poem with me yesterday morning, and I want to share it with all of you. Wanna hear it? He'ah go.

some tips: sunsets and starvation are good

Always use the word 'Africa' or 'Darkness' or 'Safari' in your title. Subtitles may include the words 'Zanzibar', 'Masai', 'Zulu', 'Zambezi', 'Congo', 'Nile', 'Big', 'Sky', 'Shadow', 'Drum', 'Sun' or 'Bygone'. Also useful are words such as 'Guerrillas', 'Timeless', 'Primordial' and 'Tribal'. Note that 'People' means Africans who are not black, while 'The People' means black Africans.

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.

Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it—because you care.

Taboo subjects: ordinary domestic scenes, love between Africans (unless a death is involved), references to African writers or intellectuals, mention of school-going children who are not suffering from yaws or Ebola fever or female genital mutilation.

Throughout the book, adopt a sotto voice, in conspiracy with the reader, and a sad I-expected-so-much tone. Establish early on that your liberalism is impeccable, and mention near the beginning how much you love Africa, how you fell in love with the place and can't live without her. Africa is the only continent you can love—take advantage of this. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed.

Your African characters may include naked warriors, loyal servants, diviners and seers, ancient wise men living in hermitic splendour. Or corrupt politicians, inept polygamous travel-guides, and prostitutes you have slept with. The Loyal Servant always behaves like a seven-year-old and needs a firm hand; he is scared of snakes, good with children, and always involving you in his complex domestic dramas. The Ancient Wise Man always comes from a noble tribe (not the money-grubbing tribes like the Gikuyu, the Igbo or the Shona). He has rheumy eyes and is close to the Earth. The Modern African is a fat man who steals and works in the visa office, refusing to give work permits to qualified Westerners who really care about Africa. He is an enemy of development, always using his government job to make it difficult for pragmatic and good-hearted expats to set up NGOs or Legal Conservation Areas. Or he is an Oxford-educated intellectual turned serial-killing politician in a Savile Row suit. He is a cannibal who likes Cristal champagne, and his mother is a rich witch-doctor who really runs the country.

Among your characters you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West. Her children have flies on their eyelids and pot bellies, and her breasts are flat and empty. She must look utterly helpless. She can have no past, no history; such diversions ruin the dramatic moment. Moans are good. She must never say anything about herself in the dialogue except to speak of her (unspeakable) suffering. Also be sure to include a warm and motherly woman who has a rolling laugh and who is concerned for your well-being. Just call her Mama. Her children are all delinquent. These characters should buzz around your main hero, making him look good. Your hero can teach them, bathe them, feed them; he carries lots of babies and has seen Death. Your hero is you (if reportage), or a beautiful, tragic international celebrity/aristocrat who now cares for animals (if fiction).

Bad Western characters may include children of Tory cabinet ministers, Afrikaners, employees of the World Bank. When talking about exploitation by foreigners mention the Chinese and Indian traders. Blame the West for Africa's situation. But do not be too specific.
Broad brushstrokes throughout are good. Avoid having the African characters laugh, or struggle to educate their kids, or just make do in mundane circumstances. Have them illuminate something about Europe or America in Africa. African characters should be colourful, exotic, larger than life—but empty inside, with no dialogue, no conflicts or resolutions in their stories, no depth or quirks to confuse the cause.

Describe, in detail, naked breasts (young, old, conservative, recently raped, big, small) or mutilated genitals, or enhanced genitals. Or any kind of genitals. And dead bodies. Or, better, naked dead bodies. And especially rotting naked dead bodies. Remember, any work you submit in which people look filthy and miserable will be referred to as the 'real Africa', and you want that on your dust jacket. Do not feel queasy about this: you are trying to help them to get aid from the West. The biggest taboo in writing about Africa is to describe or show dead or suffering white people.

Animals, on the other hand, must be treated as well rounded, complex characters. They speak (or grunt while tossing their manes proudly) and have names, ambitions and desires. They also have family values: see how lions teach their children? Elephants are caring, and are good feminists or dignified patriarchs. So are gorillas. Never, ever say anything negative about an elephant or a gorilla. Elephants may attack people's property, destroy their crops, and even kill them. Always take the side of the elephant. Big cats have public-school accents. Hyenas are fair game and have vaguely Middle Eastern accents. Any short Africans who live in the jungle or desert may be portrayed with good humour (unless they are in conflict with an elephant or chimpanzee or gorilla, in which case they are pure evil).

After celebrity activists and aid workers, conservationists are Africa's most important people. Do not offend them. You need them to invite you to their 30,000-acre game ranch or 'conservation area', and this is the only way you will get to interview the celebrity activist. Often a book cover with a heroic-looking conservationist on it works magic for sales. Anybody white, tanned and wearing khaki who once had a pet antelope or a farm is a conservationist, one who is preserving Africa's rich heritage. When interviewing him or her, do not ask how much funding they have; do not ask how much money they make off their game. Never ask how much they pay their employees.

Readers will be put off if you don't mention the light in Africa. And sunsets, the African sunset is a must. It is always big and red. There is always a big sky. Wide empty spaces and game are critical—Africa is the Land of Wide Empty Spaces. When writing about the plight of flora and fauna, make sure you mention that Africa is overpopulated. When your main character is in a desert or jungle living with indigenous peoples (anybody short) it is okay to mention that Africa has been severely depopulated by Aids and War (use caps).

You'll also need a nightclub called Tropicana, where mercenaries, evil nouveau riche Africans and prostitutes and guerrillas and expats hang out.

Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances. Because you care.

thanks, obi.-L.

The Blues People.

This morning I heard the news of Terrell Owen's alleged suicide attempt (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/nfl/09/27/owens.report/index.html?cnn=yes). Many people are shocked, saying that they never would have guessed that TO was struggling with depression. But I think there's another issue here--depression and suicide are issues in the Black community that are still tremendous taboos. Somehow, we still seem to think that depression, therapy, etc. are "white issues" and that only White people suffer from it or need therapy for it.

I've known people who have committed suicide, and I know people who have suffered clinical depression. It's a serious subject, and one that needs to be talked about in depth in our community. Read on.

-L.

http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/depression/minorities_5.asp

"It's a hidden crisis and it's killing more young black men then ever. Suicide is a taboo subject among many cultures, but the denial of mental health disorders runs rampant among African Americans. Between 1980 and 1995, the suicide rate of black males doubled to about eight deaths per 100,000 people. The authors of a new book are uncovering an unspoken crisis in the African American community.

It was 1979 but Amy Alexander remembers the day like it was yesterday."He was just very wonderful," recalls Amy Alexander, author of Lay My Burden Down" I looked up to him. I admired him."She was just a teenager when her brother Carl took his own life. Still reeling from the tragedy, Amy teamed up with renowned Harvard psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint to dispel the myths of suicide among the black community."It is very much a misperception that black people don't commit suicide and that comes in part from a need the very real and legitimate need for black people for many years to be very strong," says Alexander.

They see mental disorder and depression as a sign of personal weakness or moral failure," says psychiatrist Alvin Poussaint, M.D. of the Harvard Medical School.The suicide rate among black men has doubled since 1980 making suicide the third leading cause of death for black men between the ages 15 and 24. Poussaint calls his own brother's death from heroin abuse a slow form of suicide.

"Psychologists and psychiatrists have to pay attention to those types of behaviors and look at them in a context in the same way they would look at someone who, in fact, was depressed or maybe suicidal," says Poussaint.

Like others, African Americans may display depression through physical symptoms like headaches and stomachaches and may complain of an aching misery."There must be an increased awareness about the unique aspects of mental health in black Americans."

Doctor Poussaint says one reason African-Americans may not seek out professional help is because only about 2.3% of all psychiatrists in the United States are African American. Amy feels it's important that culturally sensitive training become a part of the standard mental healthcare education process. She emphasizes mental health problems are often physically related and can be treated through talk therapy or through medication.

STARTLING STATISTICS:

Between 1980 and 1995, the suicide rate among black men doubled to nearly 8 deaths per 100,000 people. Suicide is now the third leading cause of death among black men between the ages of 15 and 24.SILENT SITUATION:Despite this increase in numbers, the topic of suicide is still considered "taboo". While this is true nationwide among all groups, Alvin Poussaint, M.D., a Harvard psychiatrist, says the stigma is even stronger in the black community. One problem, he says, is the stigma associated with depression itself. More than 60 percent of black individuals don't see depression as a mental illness, which makes it unlikely they will seek help for it. Dr. Poussaint says it goes back to the days when blues music was invented as a way to sing about pain and distress. He says blacks just consider it part of life. He also says blacks pride themselves on being strong after surviving 250 years of slavery and years of segregation and discrimination. Depression, then, is seen as a sign of weakness.

OVERCOMING THE PROBLEM:

Dr. Poussaint says the first step to help is public awareness. He says, "You can't prevent illness or suicide if you don't talk about it and gain some knowledge about it." Along with this, he says education about the warning signs of suicide is needed. These signs include:
* Irritability
* Changes in appetite
* Changes in sleep habits
* Headaches, stomach aches, pain all over
* Chronic fatigue - not wanting to get up in the morning
* Sadness that continues for up to a month - spontaneous crying
* Social withdrawal - a loss of interest in activities and things once considered enjoyable

SLOW SUICIDE

Dr. Poussaint also talks about what he calls "slow suicide." This is other self- destructive behavior that can accompany depression. This includes drug addiction, alcohol addiction, gang involvement, and other high-risk behaviors.GET HELPDr. Poussaint says if these characteristics describe you or anyone you know, get help. Don't deny the problem. He says, "It is not a moral weakness, and it doesn't mean you are less of a person because you reach out for help."The National Hopeline Network 1-800-SUICIDE provides access to trained telephone counselors, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Or for a crisis center in your area, go here."