Lincoln University students and faculty are reeling from the death of a beloved administrator, Dr. “Bonnie” Antoinette Candia-Bailey. The university’s former vice president for student affairs died by suicide last month. The tragedy has spurred an investigation into the workplace culture at the historically Black university. It also sparked a dialogue about Black mental health. Erica Savage, a wellness lifestyle consultant in Washington D.C., recently contributed to the conversation with her article, “Why Black Girl Magic Won’t Stop Suicide.”
In the piece, Savage recounts her own attempt to end her life after suffering a traumatic brain injury. But she also describes how with so many statistics showing a threat to their life expectancy, Black women can stay alive.
KBIA’s Katelynn McIlwain talked with Erica Savage. Here’s an excerpt from their conversation.
Erica Savage: The name of the piece is "Why Black Girl Magic Won’t Stop Suicide," and I wrote that piece specifically because I felt it was a responsibility to be able to articulate my experience and bring in the collective to say that this is also impacting other people, specifically Black women. It’s a very specific way that it impacts Black women; the phenomenon known as weathering. This phenomenon speaks to social structures that impact us in a way that increases our cortisol levels.
So what we find is that instead of being in places of calm or having places of calm inside, we’re always looking for the next threat. What that does is it tells our body that we’re not safe. So our body then goes into, “Let me try to make this person safe,” using resources that actually should not be used. So once those resources are depleted, it opens us up to cancers. Breast cancer has now been advised specifically to Black women to start going to have mammograms much earlier than prescribed at one time.
We have to pay attention to this phenomenon because, my God, people are not only wrestling with the loss of life, but then what does that mean for them being in higher education and perhaps wanting to mirror her career?
We have to pay attention to this phenomenon because, my God, people are not only wrestling with the loss of life, but then what does that mean for them being in higher education and perhaps wanting to mirror her career?
Katelynn McIlwain: We know that with Candia-Bailey, her family has reported that she felt bullied, she felt mistreated, she felt harassed. Whether it’s personally or in the workplace, what are some little ways that we can show compassion to each other?
Erica Savage: Calling attention to language. I had an elasticity challenge that I listed in my newsletter last week. I said, “Well, when you think about something that brings you joy, like ‘I love plants,’ write it on a piece of paper and put it inside of a cup or something. So on a day where it doesn’t feel good and when we’re not feeling good about ourselves, we reach into that cup and to pick out something that you have actually said about yourself, these are your words and to be able to read that.
Something practical that I mentioned is buying flowers. Usually, you can go and get them for like $2 or $3, you can get them to last up to 10 days, but it’s a nice way to look over and see that not only are you living, but that you are beautiful and you are worthy.
Katelynn McIlwain: Wow, that’s beautiful. I love that. I want to practice that to have not only a cup of your own beauty but also the natural beauty. It’s the little things that I feel like are so powerful.
Erica Savage: It is Katelynn, and look at how you lit up, the fireworks that you create! If it makes you smile, if it makes you giggle, what you did was you let that moment have that but then something came, and it shined even brighter. It doesn’t pretend that the moment did not happen or the news that you got the theme didn’t happen, but that is a part of living.
