Begum's Mind

Blanx•i •e•ty (c) /BlaNG'zīədē/ noun Feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease associated with the daily turmoils of being Black in AmeriKKKa \ usually due to the possibilities of unknown outcomes ____________________ Anxiety is real and alive in the Black community, even though we don't want to acknowledge it. It comes coupled with depression often and we all know that when it comes to mental health, we love to play like it can't affect us. So, we probably don't even realize that anxiety heightened from being Black is even possible. No, I'm not saying being Black is a bad thing, or that it's going to always cause feelings of despair. I'm not saying that every Black person is going to even relate (we know there are outliers), but, I am going to point at the fact that we may have heightened moments of anxiety due to being Black in America. Think about it. Every day we see on our social media feeds and TV screens that another person who looks j

What a friend we have in anxiety. Just the word alone can cause an adrenaline rush. It drops in like the best friend you've always thought about: shows up unannounced, stays for long periods of time without a care, keeps you up all through the night! I am not shy about my anxiety. Whenever I have an opportunity to tell my story, I do. Not to try to find pity in people, but to open the conversation for those who think it's something to be ashamed of. So many of us battle with anxiety now in our 20s that it's almost like it's something we should have been told about as a progressive stage along with periods and wet dreams. I have touched on the topic of mental health previously in "13 Reasons Why Pretty Hurts: An Ode to Mental Health", but I still don't think it's enough. Anxiety for a lot of people is more than just that feeling of nervousness before a big test, or a presentation in front of the entire office. Anxiety is something way deeper and can

________________________________ You did it! You successfully used a years long argument and divide to cause dialogue based on division once more. You pitted Black people who attend a Predominantly White Institution against Black scholars who attend/ed a Historically Black College or University. It may not have been your intentions, but it surely is what occurred. This was your chance to uplift Black heritage and the deep pride that comes with attending HBCUs, as well as celebrate education in the Black realm. Instead, you had to do it by using a PWI experience as the juxtaposing experience for one of an HBCU calling it inauthentic to do one versus the other. You plastered the statement " Sorry, you can't have an authentic Black HBCU experience attending a PWI " across photographs of different shades of ebony showing us all the Black girl magic. But, couldn't you have made this segment less problematic? Could you not have uplifted HBCUs without

My aspirations in life?...To be happy. I am sure we have heard about the Netflix Original " 13 Reasons Why " by now, and if you haven't then let me enlighten you for a quick second. (No spoilers) The series focuses on a high school girl who commits suicide and instead of leaving behind a regular suicide note, she left behind a series of cassette tapes dedicated to each person which whom she felt caused her pain and pushed her to the edge. Dramatic, right? Pretty deep. It does have some graphic content and it can get a bit morbid, but there's definitely a huge message (a few) in the series. One theme would clearly be that mental health is a serious issue that we should not ignore. I won't spend my entire time on just this show, but I wanted my readers to understand the affect it had on me. Mental health is a serious topic for me. You truly never know what someone is going through or has had to battle. People may look at teenagers and assume they'

When we take the time to truly sit back and unpack the many issues we have with ourselves...we will be able to be free and light again and maneuver through the world happy.  Maybe you've seen it, maybe you haven't. Thanks to The Shade Room posting a simple question typed in black text upon a plain white background on Instagram it has gotten people thinking about their own faults as to why they may be single (at least I would hope you're looking introspectively). So, with that being said, I pose this question to you now: Why are you single? I don't want to hear about how it's someone else's fault and you're just tired of dealing with baseless people. Let us stop putting blame on others for our own mistakes. Yes, baggage can be claimed due to the packing of issues that came from someone else hurting you or someone else lying to you constantly, but in the end, is it not all our own baggage that we have been carrying and stuffing with more shit

I ain't sayin' she a gold digger...                        - Kanye West, "Gold Digger", 2005                           Is looking for financial security really wrong in a relationship? Popular culture seems to tell us (women, specifically) that we should not be chasing coins in a man, but instead be looking at his potential or his personality. You see countless tweets and Facebook statuses about men complaining that all women want is their money or that they are tired of women looking for status. Why can't we look at all of those things? When did it become a problem to want success in your partner? But she ain't messin' with no broke niggas... The idea of wanting money has become looked down upon so much, but why? Money and success seem to come hand in hand for a lot of people, hence the idea that a man/woman with full pockets is successful. Yes, we may measure success in different ways, but let's be honest, a full list o