Most adults recall being bullied and talked about and even traumatized by their tormentors at times during their formative school years. But most survived and even thrived in adulthood.
So why are Black kids killing themselves at much higher rates today than previous generations? Why is the Black suicide rate twice that of their White counterparts?
Madison Carter, Monika Diaz and their team of investigative journalists set out to uncover what’s precipitating pre-teens and teens taking their own lives like never before. The three-party TV special, “A Different Cry,” which airs beginning Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022, could also be titled “Suffering and Dying in Silence” due to the fact that the alarming upward trend in suicides in young Blacks has gone unnoticed.
“The bullying is different today. And I think that’s what was so shocking,” said Carter, who works with a team of investigative journalists called Atticus at WXIA in Atlanta. Carter added that when she was a kid, students got a break from bullying once they got off the bus. Today, through technological advances, kids are being tormented relentlessly.
“Today, it doesn’t stop,” Carter told rolling out. “I remember there was one case we went through where a girl was telling this boy: ‘you’re not going to grow anyway, look at what happened to George Floyd, look what’s happened to Tamir Rice, look at all these other people. So you might as well end it all.’ They’re using what’s happening in our nation against each other. And it is traumatizing.”
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