Saturday, September 25, 2010

Kenny McKinley's Death Shines Light on Black Men's Struggle With Suicide

by Kevin BlackistoneFiled under: NFL, Sports Business and Media

Dr. Alvin Poussaint didn't know Kenny McKinley. He just sounded as if he did.

"Young black men commit suicide at a very significant rate, particularly from like 15 [years old] to 24 or 25," the Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry told me earlier this week.

"When men, and this is true of black men, make a suicide attempt, it is usually lethal. They really kill themselves. Over 50 percent, maybe 55 percent or more, of the suicides of men, and of young men, are with firearms.

"Frequently, the thing that precipitates it is a big loss, a big psychological loss. Like after divorce, or separation or the death of someone, you grieve. Sometimes this happens when you lose something else that's very important to you, so I'll let you speculate about that."

McKinley, who broke most of the major receiving records at South Carolina set by Sterling Sharpe, was in his second season in the NFL with the Denver Broncos when he was discovered dead in the bedroom of his Aurora, Colo., house outside of Denver on Monday.

McKinley was black.

He was 23. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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