Peer Presentations #1 The Stampede

The

The presentation by the Stampede addressed suicide among African Americans: Ages 15-24. I feel like it was necessary to discuss this topic seeing as though a student had recently committed suicide and suicide is not something that is discussed often.  They started by defining suicide as the taking of one’s life, but that it not all it is; it is the severing of social ties from the family, church, and other social aspects of life. Today the leading cause of suicide is due to unemployment. This creates a sense of helplessness in which people feel they have no other way out than to take their own lives. Other reasons as to why people commit suicide are incarceration, stress, few ties to the church and social group, and childhood maltreatment. Something new things I learned from their presentation were that more than 30,000 African Americans commit suicide annually. There are more than five African American suicides per day, and for every successful suicide the ratio is four to one, men to women. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in the world today and I feel that if we are able to recognize the signs of people in distress then more lives can be saved. It is very important to be aware of the people around us and to monitor their behavior. Most people who commit suicide are the people we would never expect too, and that indeed is a tragedy in itself. I just feel that we should always be conscious about what we say and do to people cause our actions can really affect someone to the point of wanting to end their life.