That's why we've put together the information in this hub: To promote and be effective in addressing mental health for all, MHA uses a racial equity and intersectional lens to highlight, better understand, and effectively respond to the range of experiences held by individuals and families with diverse values, beliefs, and sexual orientations, in addition to backgrounds that vary by race, ethnicity, religion, and language. This change helps demonstrate that we are actively working on looking at our own work and the role we play in educating others. Thus, as of July 2020, MHA will no longer use the term “minority” and is currently phasing out the term "minority" across our materials and website. By including “BI” Black and Indigenous in addition to “POC” people of color, we are honoring the unique experiences of Black and Indigenous individuals and their communities, as well as the spectrum of existence and experience by POC. Though “minority” and “marginalized” may continue to be used in academic spaces, the words the mental health community uses need to change in order to help communities understand how these terms create and perpetuate negative images and stereotypes of individuals that identify as BIPOC. The word “minority” also emphasizes the power differential between “majority” and “minority” groups and can make BIPOC feel as though “minority” is synonymous with inferiority. The use of these terms directly contradicts MHA’s focus on the individual and our hope to empower the individual as a whole person.
The continued use of “minority or marginalized” sets up BIPOC communities in terms of their quantity instead of their quality and removes their personhood. This concept can be carried out as well in the way we refer to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). For example, we avoid describing people as “schizophrenics” and instead refer to them as “people with schizophrenia.” This is language that prioritizes the identity of individuals as human beings with unique experiences and identities over their mental health status. In the field of mental health, we are familiar with “person first” language. The way we talk about things can often influence the way we think about them. Mental Health Resources for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color
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