Our sports heroes are icons of the American way of life. Nearly 90% of American adults think that well known athletes have a responsibility to be positive role models for young people, according to the US Anti-Doping Agency. With this reverence for athletes, it isn’t hard to believe that the eyes of the world give some of the pros cold feet when admitting to not being invincible. But this gives rise to some specific problems for people of color (POC) in the athletic circle.

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In the 2017 season, the NBA was 74.2 percent African-American and 80.7 percent POC, according to ESPN. Many of these players are from inner cities and other less privileged environments, and acts of violence were commonplace in many players’ upbringing. Players such as Marcus and Markieff Morris, DeMar DeRozan, and many others have been very forthcoming about their time in the dangerous neighborhoods that they grew up in. The mental toll that the constant threat of violence took upon them is essential to experiences that the camera rarely shows sports fans, and is key to understanding the institutional problems with the handling of mental health in American sports.

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"If you grow up in the inner city, you have to walk a certain way, and you have to talk a certain way. If a guy walks past you, you gotta make sure you don't show any type of weakness, so they won't mess with you,” DeRozan said to ESPN, detailing his way of life in his home city. This is a commonplace strategy for black and POC athletes coming from dangerous areas, where not adapting means not surviving. However, a constant strut just to ensure one’s safety for the day has put another tremendous weight on young men and women coming from these environments. Many of the athletes that have come forward to talk about their trauma from this have taken great length to detail mental illness’ effect on their careers. Almost universally, leaving anxiety, depression, and other illnesses to stagnate--on top of other pressures that come from being a professional athlete--does nothing but debilitate someone as a competitor. A legacy in the NBA had nearly been killed before it began for Marcus Morris because of his anxiety, and others have missed their shot at greatness because of it.

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"In the African-American culture, there's this tendency to believe if we hide our problems, we'll be better off," Bruce Bowen said in an interview with ESPN. Many of the athletes have felt that burying their anxieties is the only way to continue on--and with the peering eyes of the American sports viewer, it becomes that much harder to reveal this stress. However, it is understandably difficult to reach out and break that facade of invincibility as a POC specifically.

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“They already face stigma attached to being a student athlete and stigma attached to being black...black student athletes typically don’t want to bring undue attention for stigmatized services, such as mental health counseling”, said Ike Evans, from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health. Black and POC athletes, especially students, are even harder pressed to get help for their troubles because of the pressure that they already face from society for their race.

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“But it's not a sign of weakness. It's actually a sign of courage because you are taking the first step towards conquering your problems,” Bowen continues in his interview, praising those athletes that have come forward about their use of mental health resources. The roots of mental illness shaming in athletics are only just being brought to light, but the new wave of healthy conversation on the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and the stigma surrounding it could be just what aspiring POC athletes have needed.