AFJ Voices | Being Seen as a Threat is a Mental Health Issue

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“It’s exhausting to constantly have to prove you’re not a threat.”

These are thoughts young Black and Brown adults think about every day that most never have to consider.

AFJ Court Advocate, Elsie Flores, has walked alongside many of these young people. "Too many youth have learned how to survive before they've learned how to heal," she says. "Addressing mental health means creating spaces where pain can be spoken, grief can be honored, and hope can be rebuilt."

That healing is made harder by a reality we rarely name directly. Around the age of 15, Black and Brown young men begin to be perceived as someone to fear by many in this country. This shift in how they are viewed changes how they have to navigate their environments. We do not talk about this dynamic with complete transparency, because it makes people uncomfortable. But it is the daily reality for many of the young people we work with at Avenues for Justice (AFJ), and it causes a form of chronic stress. It has a name: “minority stress,” a condition well-documented in public health literature as a driver of anxiety, depression, and physiological harm.

The Participants at AFJ are putting in the work. They are in school. They are showing up to their internship placements. They are supporting their families and trying to build something stable. One Participant, Donald, wants to become a therapist. He used his voice at a congressional press conference. He has shown up without missing a single workshop since he was ten years old—that’s three years of consistency. And yet, a look, a comment, a moment where he is made to feel like a problem can stop all that progress cold. That is what our young men are up against.

Mental health challenges can be shaped by these experiences. The hypervigilance required to move through a world that reads you as a threat can turn into anxiety, anger, and a slow erosion of confidence. It also carries into families and relationships. 

As retired Magistrate Judge and AFJ Board Member, Cheryl L. Pollak, has observed: "So many of our teens and young adults who get caught up in the criminal justice system feel lost, without hope and without purpose. Some suffer from serious but undiagnosed mental health issues. They try to self-medicate with alcohol or drugs; they join gangs or online internet chat groups to obtain social connections and a sense of community that they feel is lacking in their lives. Either path can lead them to make mistakes that result in arrest, or worse, and they end up in prison, where the resources to deal with their problems are woefully inadequate. We need to focus on these potential problems before they become a crisis." 

Her words point to the urgency of both intervening before a young person reaches a breaking point and to the cost of waiting until crisis strikes.

If we are serious about discussing mental health, we have to examine what produces it. That means being honest about bias and how it shows up in a look, a word, a headline, an assumption made before anyone speaks. It means creating space for trust and dignity in every interaction. It also means changing the perception that seeking help is a sign of weakness or inadequacy. And it requires action and real pathways to employment, education, and stability, so that navigating bias is not what these young men have to constantly carry.

At Avenues for Justice, that work is happening every day through programs like our HIRE Up Leadership Council cohort, where young people are building experience, confidence, and real possibility.

Mental Health Awareness Month is a call to action. Not just for individuals seeking mental health support, but for all of us. Community mental health means actively choosing not to participate in the conditions that cause harm.