Taraji Penda Henson has been working hard to end the humiliation associated with mental illness in the black community.
The importance of the issue brought tears in her eyes while she was honored for her work at Variety magazine’s Power of Women New York lunch.
The American actress inaugurated the Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation in September, named after her late father, who was a victim of mental health challenges after he returned home from the Vietnam War.
At Friday’s luncheon, after she was introduced by Black-ish star Yara Shahidi, Henson said, “The number of black children ages 5-12 who have died by suicide has doubled since the 1990s. This is a national crisis.”
The star of TV’s Empire added, “Our vision is to eradicate the stigma around mental health in the black community by breaking the silence and breaking a cycle of shame. We were taught to hold our problems close to the vest out of fear of being labeled and further demonized as weak, or inadequate.”
The What Men Want star wants to “ensure that we have enough soldiers to fight the battle.” She told Van Jones of CNN, “The Henson Foundation raises money and advocates for greater numbers of ‘culturally competent’ therapists and psychiatrists in black communities.”
