It’s officially Fall season and y’all know what that means: season premiers of your favorite TV shows!
With the fifth season of Empire premiering tomorrow night Taraji P. Henson is on her promo tour grind but not necessarily to talk about what Cookie’s going to be up to once Empire kicks off tomorrow night.
Sitting down with your favorite morning trio, The Breakfast Club, Taraji and her close friend Tracie Jenkins address a problem that’s been plaguing the Black community for decades: mental health. Opening up about their own experiences and struggles with said issue to Envy, Charlamagne and Angela Yee, TPH and TJ explain just how big a problem mental health is in our communities and how it plays a part in their lives to this day.
Here are the 8 things we learned from Taraji P. Henson and Tracie Jenkins on The Breakfast Club.
1. This Can’t Be Life
TPH reveals that her son’s father was killed when he was 9-years-old and her father died two years later “ I saw the last look. I felt his body go cold. That’s traumatic.” Wow. That truly is. She felt it hard to open up to non-Black therapists and feels that she wouldn’t be able to completely open up to a white therapist. Eventually, she found a Black therapist but still feels she hasn’t found “the right” one.
2. Mental Health Help
Knowing that mental health is a problem amongst the Black community, Taraji P. Henson launched a mental health nonprofit and named it after her father who died of liver cancer, Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation. She big ups backers like Snoop Dogg, Tracy Morgan, Kevin Hart and Xzibit for cutting checks in support of her project. Props to all these men and of course, Ms. Henson.
3. The Substitute
Before she got on in Baby Boy, Taraji was a substitute teacher and she actually chose to work in the schools in the hood. That’s when she realized that schools would label Black kids “special ed” off of their financial situation and other personal circumstances, not their actual learning capabilities.
4. Generational Issue
Tracie Jenkins remembers that she had her first panic attack at 14-years-old which left her body lifeless on the floor. It wasn’t until after an emergency room visit that she realized her health was great but her mental health was going through it. Unfortunately, it seems to be a genetic thing as she, her mother, her sister and her daughter all have mental health issues.
5. Who Preggers?
Regardless of the word on the street is, Taraji P. Henson vehemently denies being pregnant. “Every interview I’m gonna have to say ‘I’m not pregnant!’” We guess she’s not pregnant.
7. Wrong Label
Taraji says she was about to put hands on her son’s teacher for trying to label him with ADD. “He was like one of maybe three Black kids in the school, so you gonna drug my Black son up because he’s rambunctious? It’s your job to figure out a way to teach him the way he needs to learn.”
8. Mary J. Blige
Taraji confirms that when she first met Mary J. Blige the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul was rude to her but they’re cool now and actually laugh about the initial encounter.
