Ep 10 - Jarrett Hill, Cultural Empathy in Therapists, and SO MANY HELENS
Way more Helens than usual
The crux of the issue
I did a search on therapists in my area and this is what came up.
Hang on, I’m being told this is from the sorority section of the Ohio University yearbook of 1940. Not that hard a mistake to make. When you do the search I’m talking about, something like this, maybe with some hairstyle changes, comes up. But where are the Black people? Where are the Asian-American people? And, not that we can tell from photos, but are there people in there who grasp the LGBTQ+ experience in there?
(I’m kind of digging that Virginia Mullett in the second row seems to have a mullet.)
This week’s episode is one that I’ve wanted to do for a while. It touches on what I think is or at least should be a big concern. If you’re in a minority group in America, you have experienced discrimination. You live in a society with entrenched racism, homophobia, transphobia, and plenty of other issues. So you’re very much in need of psychological therapy. But will you feel comfortable with mostly white, straight therapists who are available? If you mention being followed around a store, will they get what that’s about or will they ask why you *think* you’re being followed around a store? And, as a member of a persecuted group, how willing will you be to open up to someone given that issue?
It’s part of our talk with Jarrett Hill in the first couple of segments of the show and the focus of our talk with Dr. Ksera Dyette in the third part.
A different topic but not really
I loved loved loved talking to Jarrett Hill. I always find some ease in talking to people like me - middle-aged dudes who are into comedy and music and movies. It’s simple and I can always walk in pretty well informed. But I’m thrilled to talk to people who walk in a different world. Jarrett is young, black, and queer, and in the interview we hear about growing up in a conservative church that revealed its homophobia just as Jarrett was accepting that he was gay. We learn why he prefers women of color for therapy and why he prefers women over men.
FANTI, the delightful podcast that Jarrett co-hosts with Tre’vell Anderson is all about the problematic contradictions of the things you love being simultaneously not so great. Gospel music, for instance, or awards shows. The title is made of FAN and ANTI. I suggested, perhaps, ANTIFA, but it seems that is taken.
Here’s my privilege bubble: when I heard about this show, I wondered if they were slicing a little too thin. Are there really that many things that are both popular and problematic? Well OF COURSE DUH THERE ARE. But as someone who lives in a lot of majority groups, I have a default tendency to see those things as “normal” and not “complex and often kind of fucked up”. I value the opportunity to reexamine this in myself.
Oh, we used a picture up there featuring many people named Helen?
Great! I can use that!
Helen Bryant is my favorite Helen. Your feet are what you walk on.
What’s that? You want to hear more from the Helens?
I feel like cole slaw has made a comeback in recent years. Thank you, 30 Helens.
Okay, boxer. Boxer, okay.
Gervonta Davis is a boxer who was scheduled to fight another boxer named Ryan Garcia and the two are big rivals. I have never heard of these guys. But Garcia needed to postpone the fight in order to deal with mental health issues. Davis’s response? “Mental illness is global so I just wish him the best. I'm gonna continue to focus on my fight. We'll meet if it's meant and if it's not, then so be it. Best wishes to him."
It’s good and a bit surprising that boxers are tuned into mental health.
Presumably, if Garcia feels up to it and things can be arranged, they will meet up and HIT EACH OTHER IN THE HEAD REPEATEDLY.
I mean, it’s kind of hard to feel completely 100% great about the mental health message here? But thanks?
Let’s get some more Helens in here
From our “headlines you need to re-read to make sure you got that” files
The cop who pushed a mentally ill man off a platform and onto active train tracks? He got a warning.
Surveillance video from the Feb. 16 incident showed RTA police officer Patrick Rivera shove McDermott off the platform and on to the tracks, which were active at the time.
Rivera avoided a suspension or firing by signing an agreement with RTA police officials that says he will be fired if he makes another mistake in the next year. Former RTA Police Chief Michael Gettings also ordered Rivera attend 40 hours of crisis intervention training and one day of de-escalation and judgement training.
The video showed a brief interaction before McDermott appeared to lunge at Rivera twice. Rivera shoved McDermott in the side after McDermott started turning around. McDermott fell off the platform and Rivera and another officer blocked him from climbing off the tracks.