This assignment is based on the essay outline and bibliography assignment (s. there) and needs to incorporate the feedback and/or recommendations given by the course director on that earlier assignment. This evidence-based essay should have an overall length of 2000 to 2500 words plus references and bibliography. It represents the longer, full version of the text your outline envisioned, although you will have the freedom to make greater changes to your topic if you so choose. The end-of-term essay should be organized in roughly this form: 1) title page (giving information on you as the author, on the course it is connected to, the name of the course director, and the title of your essay); 2) introduction (elaborating on the topic, its relevance within a larger scholarly context, and a brief outlook on how your essay goes about addressing this topic); 3) main part (the “body” of the essay presenting your data, condense them into an argument, and weigh its pros and cons); 4) conclusion (summarizing the overall results of your essay, putting them into a larger context, and providing your personal thoughts, your opinion, or possible open questions concerning the topic you investigated); and 5) bibliography (containing at least six (6) titles, a maximum two (2) of which can be taken from required reading course texts). References used can be published in journals or books; Wikipedia and similar collaborative web-based reference works are not acceptable as references. Citations should be APA style (you can download a style guide from this Moodle site). For additional support in preparing and completing your essay, you are encouraged to review the relevant information in the Student Papers & Academic Research Kit (SPARK) provided by York University (at The due date for handing in the end-of-term essay assignment through Moodle (or, in case of technical difficulties, by email) is April 2, 2019. THE PROPOSAL: Essay Outline & Bibliography “The Broken Men: African American Historical Trauma and Stigmatization” “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” – Fredrick Douglass The topic I have chosen to dissect is the concept of African American Mental Health and the effects that Slavery has had on these peoples. For generations in the African American community there has been a long standing stigma around mental health and seeking medical assistance in that regard. Many persons are told to “ suck it up”, or “go and pray”, or even disregard certain mental health issues due to the quality of life that many Black Americans are now able to receive after over four hundred years of slavery and Jim Crow. I will attempt to explore this topic by understanding the history of African American peoples and what could have attributed to these stigmas. Through the works of numerous writers namely Franz Fanon, I will use these theories to undercover how these stigmas began, what has made them continue these stigmas for generations, and what coping mechanisms have been used over time to alleviate these illnesses to some degree. Drawing upon the works of scholars helps to create my argument that due to the historical trauma that African Americans have faced it is the main contributor to the stigmas held against mental health and mental health treatment. This essay will pose questions that will add to the current debate in Black Mental Health Studies and also contribute to the discussion of Mental Health because it highlights the experiences of a racialized and exploited people and the historical traumas that their ancestors have felt are now being placed upon them and now with the issues of the 21st century it makes it harder to alleviate these stigmas against mental health when it has been generationally rooted into their minds. Bibliography Baldwin, J. A. (1984). African Self-Consciousness and the Mental Health of African-Americans. Journal of Black Studies, 15(2), 177-194. doi:10.1177/002193478401500203 Harris, K. M., Edlund, M. J., & Larson, S. (2005). Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Mental Health Problems and Use of Mental Health Care. Medical Care, 43(8), 775-784. doi: 10.1097/01.mlr.0000170405.66264.23 Mandara, J., Gaylord-Harden, N. K., Richards, M. H., & Ragsdale, B. L. (2009). The Effects of Changes in Racial Identity and Self-Esteem on Changes in African American Adolescents’ Mental Health. Child Development, 80(6), 1660-1675. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01360.x Poussaint, A. F., & Alexander, A. (2000). Lay my burden down: Unraveling suicide and the mental health crisis among African-Americans. Boston: Beacon Press. Smith, A. (1981). Religion and mental health among blacks. Journal of Religion & Health, 20(4), 264-287. doi:10.1007/bf01572627 Fanon, Frantz. (1963) The wretched of the earth /New York : Grove Press,
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