Chris's work focuses on the unique needs of Black men experiencing suicidality and mental health challenges in the UK through Project Soul Stride. He advocates for increased funding for Black-led research, culturally specific services and peer support networks. Chris collaborates with various organisations to promote systemic change and reduce stigma.
Chris recently spoke at a meeting of the Race and Psychiatry Journal Club, and this is a summary of that conversation.
Maya: You've had a unique career living and working across multiple different continents before arriving back to the UK. How did your experiences abroad shape your understanding of mental health and racial identity?
I moved to Asia in 2000 just after my 30 birthday. I ended up living in Asia for just under 20 years. And, you know, when I first arrived in some of these countries, particularly Singapore, I remember in the tail end of 2002, I could count on two hands how many black faces there were in the Singapore business district where I worked at that time. And, it made me realise two things. One, how highly visible you are as a black man, but also how highly invisible you can be as a black man at the same time, whilst navigating some of these unfamiliar locations. But, it’s something that I threw myself into and I travelled far and wide visiting some amazing locations.
In Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, I would guess so few of the of the locals had ever laid eyes on a black person. You have to grow thick skin, because people stop, stare and point, and, you just have to embrace those opportunities to not only adapt and know what it means to be a black man on foreign soil, but also, how recognise these microaggressions because it's very much in innocence - but it really does make you realise that you have to be quite secure in your own identity.
…knowledge should flow horizontally and not top down vertically.”
I walked to work one morning in the Beijing CBD, and as I approached a local family: grandparents, parents, kid. The kid stopped and pointed, and I could figure out what he was saying, something like ‘Mum what’s that?’ The grandparents stopped, I stopped, and they spoke to the kid and they actually bowed to me and apologised. And I bowed back and smiled and as I continued my walk to work.
I realised that, it was far less about me and much more about other people. And that's actually something I've tried to maintain in my therapy that when you hold all of those mental traumas, sometimes it's not just about you, it’s about the other people. There were so many lessons learned and some of those lessons still help me today in my everyday life.
Read the full interview on the Department of Psychiatry website.