February is Black History Month.
And at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Alphonso Simpson, Ph.D., spoke at an event focused on mental health in the Black community.
Simpson is the director of the University's African-American Studies program.
"...[W]e square our shoulders and say, 'It's OK, we're alright, everything is fine, I'll make it.' And that's what's difficult," Simpson said.
"A lot of times in life, it's not ok."
Simpson said there is a theme that he has heard repeatedly.
"I hear my students say all the time, 'Well... my grandma told me, or my aunt told me, or my mom, my dad told me when I left, I was going to have to be ten times better, I was going to have to do ten percent more,'" Simpson said.
"And that's taxing on a person, that is mentally draining."
Mental health resources for anyone looking for help include dialing 211, which can offer information on counseling, for example.
Another service for anyone living in Brown, Outagamie, Calumet, or Winnebago counties is the website myconnectionnew.org.
Afshin Khosravi is CEO of the company that provides the latter website, and described what the site offers.
"[It's a ] government-funded, free public service to the community, so [users] don't even have to log-in," Khosravi said.
"[Users] can come in, punch a keyword... enter their ZIP Code, and they'll get to the providers closest to them in that area that they can then call."
