Penn State launches black mental health series with Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin

Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts is launching a “Global Black Communities and Mental Health” series. Organizers want to highlight racial disparities in health care and encounters with law enforcement. This month marks five years since the death of Osaze Osagie. State College police shot and killed Osagie during a mental health check, when police say he charged at them with a knife. Sydney Roach / WPSU Clarence Lang, the dean of the College of the Liberal Arts and a professor of African American Studies, spoke at the inaugural “Osaze Osagie Memorial Lecture.” He said it was unfortunately common for people of color to be harmed or killed by law enforcement during mental health checks. Clarence Lang is the dean of the College of the Liberal Arts and a professor of African American Studies. He said the series aims to think of ways to prevent incidents like that from happening again. “Because we know that in a racially stratified society, we have to be on guard for how issues of mental wellness in black communities can be criminalized,” Lang said. Sinfree Makoni is the interim director of the Africana Research Center and director of African Studies. He said a...