Do Blacks Hate Themselves?

Abstract

The social science literature on Negro psychology contains a rather striking paradox. On the one hand, social scientists, the author of this book included, have assumed that racial prejudice and discrimination by whites have resulted in self-hatred among Negroes. On the other hand, there is little empirical evidence, comparing blacks with whites, indicating that blacks do hate themselves more than whites. One set of comparative evidence, suicide rates, suggests that currently held assumptions concerning Negro self-hatred are incorrect. The black suicide rate is lower than the white suicide rate. Herbert Hendin begins this study of black suicide by noting one exception to the nationat statistics. Among black males between the ages of 20 and 35 in New York City the suicide rate is twice that among white males of the same age. Further, he notes that there has been an increase in the black suicide rate between 1950 and 1960. At least some of this increase can be accounted for by the official redefinition of suicides. Since 1958 victims of falls from buildings have been classified as suicidal. "Between 50 and 60 per cent of the black suicides in New York each year are by jumping." There is, as Hendin notes, the problem that some of these were either pushed or fell by acident. It remains that the rate is higher among this age group, and it is this fact which Hendin hopes to understand and to explain. The major theoretical point underlying this volume is that suicide does not have the same meaning nor the same antecedents in different societies or subcultures. Suicide, Hendin argues, is a culturally defined psychological phenomenon. Thus, suicide cannot be understood or explained by using broad cross-cultural factors such as social integration, group solidarity and the like. His book is an attempt to document the unique meaning and cause of suicide among blacks in America. In order to describe the indigenous black meaning of suicide, Hendin interviewed 25 Negroes who attempted suicide. "Usually 7 or 8 visits were sufficient, although in one, 15 visits were necessary." There is some question as to the adequacy of this "sample" of patients. Most obviously the people interviewed had only attempted suicide--none were successful. While attempting and completing suicide are related phenomena, there is some question as to whether or not they are causally identical. Beyond this, as we have already noted, between 50 and 60 per cent of the black suicides in New York are the result of iumping from buildings. Of the patients included in the study only four of the 25 jumped. Three of these four were females. Thus, even if one is willing to equate victims from building falls with suicides, and therefore grant the higher rate among black males in New York City, it is clear that this group of patients is not typical of New York black suicide victims. The conclusion of the study contains no surprise, especially to one who noticed in the preface that Hendin had studied under Abram Kardiner (Coauthor with Lionel Ovesey of The Mark of Oppression). Hendin, closely following his mentor, writes: The American Negro's life history, character, and motivation for suicide are inseparably linked to the experience of being black in our culture.