Why are there virtually no black suicides?

Question

There are virtually no suicides among African Americans, especially in America. Why is this?

Answer 1

Don't believe anything till you yourself check into it. Recent trends have shown that young blacks are committing suicides at a rate of increase over five times higher than young whites, although the percent is still lower. So that it appears that blacks will surpass whites in this tragic stat.

See, for example:

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2679212

http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml...

What the social factors are now, versus for past generations, can only be speculated upon. But one possibility may be that someone who has had to face more hardships young in life than another may be stronger mentally to cope with hardships later on.

Another factor may be that black families were more supportive emotionally than white families.

But it appears that, with upward socio-economic mobility, more and more blacks are duplicating behavior of whites.

I know a lot of black men who seem determined to spare their children the hardships they themselves went through. And I see many trying to spoil their children with material things that their own parents were too poor to give them.                            

So maybe it's a "softer life" that's causing them to become progressively weaker mentally and emotionally so that the suicide rates of young blacks is now far outpacing the rate for young whites.

I can only speculate from what I myself have observed.

Answer 2

where do you get your source. there may be significantly less but virtually none is a pretty strong statement that isn't true

Answer 3

well actually in new york the past 5 months there has been atleast 5 where i live

Answer 4

There are many black suicides. The media only reports when rich white people commit suicide.

Answer 5

are you asking this because you want more black people to commit suicides?  suicide in general is an ugly thing. so asking who is more likely to do it or not, depends on other variables, such as depression, alcohol consumption, drug abuse,chosen  life style,  among other more crucial circumstance.

Answer 6

Are you making an assumption or is there some sort of factual evidence supporting your idea that "virtually no black suicides".

Often times we take information and assume certain things.  Being African-American myself, I can tell you that the news may not broadcast everytime a African-American commits suicuide, much like they don't broadcast the number of missing black teens the way they broadcast Lacey Peterson and the women murdered by the Marine, and the girl who disappeared in Aruba.  Blacks are often viewed as less important when it comes to media coverage.  It's easier to portray us as the bad guys so that's typically what you'll see in the news.

So it sounds like you're assuming there are "virtually no black suicides" vs having some sort of factual evidence supporting this statement.

Answer 7

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus07.p...

You are incorrect. There are plenty of suicides among all races. What strikes me is the murder rate of black children that are less than one year old.

Answer 8

Maybe because the blacks that want to be killed, just go and get themselves killed instead of do it them selves?

I am not sure it's a hard question to answer ask one of your black friends maybe they have an idea?

Answer 9

I don't think that could possibly be right.  There are suicides among every  color, s*x, nationality, etc.

I'm sure the list of suicides would be so long that it would be impossible to know who were black or whatever.

This sounds like a ridiculous assumption to me.