Event Topics Discussed:
#1: Black Women and Depression
Presentor: Delane Casiano, MD (Brown '98)
#2: Black Women and Money
Presentor: Jodyann K. Blagrove, Smith Barney Financial Advisor (Brown '98)
#3: GET YOURS! The Girlfriends' Guide To Having Everything You Ever Dreamed Of And More.
Presentor: Amy Dubois Barnett, Author (Brown '98)
(Part 1 of 6)
On March 27, 2008 the Black Ivy Alumni League and Brown University's Inman Page Black Alumni Council held a special Women's History month event that offered comprehensive strategies for Black women to takes their lives to the next level, mentally, spiritually and financially. Black Ivy alum gathered at the Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends in Manhattan’s Gramercy Park neighborhood, greeted with yummy refreshments and copies of Amy DuBois Barnett’s equally delicious and soon-to-be bestseller, “Get Yours! The Girlfriend’s Guide to Having Everything You Ever Dreamed of and More.”
Also known as the Quakers, Religious Society of Friends are known for their role as leaders in the anti-slavery movement and for their foundational belief in the “inner light,” the idea that each and every person has the presence God's within him or herself. How fitting, then, that within the church’s sanctuary, Jodyann K. Blagrove, Delane Casiano, MD, and Barnett discussed a range of topics such as treating depression in the Black community, achieving financial freedom, and creating an outlook that will attract personal fulfillment and professional success.
In exploring the topic of Black Women and Depression, Casiano, a practicing psychiatrist in Philadelphia, talked about how the new field of cultural psychiatry is beginning to empower medical professionals to treat their ethnically diverse patients with a greater sensitivity than in the past. Conditions unique to African Americans include: the contrast between high depression scores and the role of self sufficient caretaker; the cultural belief that we will not be taken care of; the increasing rate of suicide among Black men and women, and the way depression is understood by the person experiencing it, such as brushing aside deep feelings of sadness, or focusing on the physical manifestations of the depression in lieu of the emotional. (continued...)
(Part 2 of 6)
Health providers frequently misread Blacks’ depression as anger or aggression, or mislabel African Americans as having schizophrenia. As a counterpoint to the misunderstanding, the American Psychiatric Association recently issued a statement acknowledging the effect of racism on ethnic minorities. As Casiano benefited greatly from the Society’s funding of her cultural psychiatry studies, she also stressed the urgent need for more research and funding in this field. Casiano suggested the books “Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman's Journey Through Depression” by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah” and “Soothe Your Nerves: The Black Woman's Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety, Panic, and Fear” health provider’s perspective by Angela Neal-Barnetta. She also mentioned invaluable resources like the Black Psychiatrists of America and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline's 24-hour toll-free crisis hotline. Patients, too, can feel empowered to seek help, reach out to a friend, shop around for the best doctor, and consider whether their doctor has worked with Black patients, treated persons with their symptoms, or allowed family members to be included in the treatment process.
Jodyann Blagrove, a Brown alum with a JD and MBA from Rutgers University, brought home the basics of financial awareness with some shocking facts: Women earn 20% less than men. Women must often leave the workforce due to childcare, eldercare and their role in the family, which puts them at a financial disadvantage compared to men. The marriage rate for Black women is about half of that for white women. Over 80% of the elderly population is female. Social security as we know it may not be around by the time our generation hits 65. (continued...)
(Part 3 of 6)
This is why, she said, it is so important for Black women to take control of their finances and prepare for old age. The first step is to align our personal values with our financial goals. Seeing the world through travel, having children, owning a home, retiring with financial ease and being debt free are all personal goals that involve or revolve around money. By seeing money as a tool rather than as cash to be hoarded or squandered, we can take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and ride it where we want to go. Identify goals and priorities, determine your net worth, analyze expenditures each month, consider ways to save more money, get financial advice from a broker.
Once tackling these basics, we can begin to look at how our money is taxed, compare CD or savings rates to those of inflation, max out our 401(K) plans, invest in IRAs or Roth IRAs, put money for children’s education into the U-Promise College Fund (a 529 Plan), and consider more aggressive investments. A diversified investment portfolio includes both risky and safe investments, and international markets are going very well right now and offer good investment opportunities. By implementing a systematic plan for saving and investing, we can achieve financial freedom and security, things we deserve. As the African American generation with the greatest transfer of wealth thus far, we are in a special time in history to take control of our futures. (continued...)
(Part 4 of 6)
Amy DuBois Barnett, graduate of Brown undergrad and Columbia’s MFA creative writing program, is a superstar of the magazine world. This is no small feat in an industry notorious for its vanilla ceiling: it is female dominated yet perhaps the least racially diverse of any of the media. Barnett, happily married and the mother of a young son, is current Deputy Editor in Chief of Harper's Bazaar; former Managing Editor of Teen People (where she made history as the first African-American woman in the country to head a major mainstream magazine); and the former Editor-in-Chief of Honey magazine.
Barnett shared with the audience the long and winding path she took to get to where she is today. Losing her mother at age 22, Barnett felt a deep void during her young adult years. Her mother had been an accomplished researcher, adventurous free spirit and a woman who managed to be both successful and warm-hearted. Following her mother’s death, Barnett went through years of depression compounded by long-held insecurities about her looks, who she was and her purpose in life. Barnett’s epiphany moment came while she was living in a crummy basement apartment, was in a relationship with a man who treated her poorly, and had a financial industry job that left her unfulfilled. One day, she looked up a picture of herself and her mother and it dawned on her: “No one’s going to save me but me.” This was a terrifying yet liberating realization. (continued...)
(Part 5 of 6)
Dumping her boyfriend, quitting her job and leaving behind a crazy roommate situation were only the first steps on her new path. Barnett started exercising, shedding the excess weight she’d been carrying during her years of sadness. She studied fashion merchandising, a passion she had had. She pursued her interest in writing and editing, earning her MFA, contributing to journals editing Fashion & Beauty and later Lifestyle features for Essence, commenting on NPR and serving as CNN’s pop culture correspondent. But most of all, Barnett took on a happy persona. As crazy as it sounds, she says, the hope it requires to act happy when you don’t feel happy projects a certain energy into the world. Determined to create a life for herself, Barnett began to walk through the world differently, and the world responded in ways even she couldn’t imagine. She attracted better men and reconnected with old friends. She even lived out in the country for a while. (continued...)
(Part 6 of 6)
Barnett tied in her message to with those of the other speakers. Her years of depression taught her that as African Americans, we must take car of ourselves and our mental health. A saver and investor since her early twenties, she asserts that we must invest in our financial wellness, never overlooking the power of compound interest.
Now the recipient of an NAACP Image nomination, Barnett looks back over those rough years and realizes that the downtimes help to inform our lives. Self-awakening comes in degrees, she says, as does releasing the deep investment in what other people think about us. Failure, success, working hard, and having fun are all a part of living. And living happens each day, rather than something we’re deprived of now so that we can “really” live later. When it comes to career, you can be mentored by your peers just as well as by that powerful person you seek to emulate – plus your peers have a lot more time for you. Believe it or not, you are not entitled to people being nice to you. Success and fame are not a given but the result of a process. And at the end of the day, you can’t control whether you’re the smartest or best-looking person in the room but you can be the one having the most fun.