Big Floyd: Requiem for a Rapper. Wishing the Same for Mental Health Stigma

George Floyd was part of the Hip Hop community. Big Floyd. Anyone today who takes on the title of “rapper” or “hip hop artist” is part of that fabric woven together in the Bronx, New York in the 1970’s.

Everlasting love and respect to DJ Kool Herc, Africa Bamaabataa, Grand Master Flash and the other lesser-known MC’s, DJ’s, B-Boys and Graffiti Artists for being pioneers of an art form that has loved me through my sixty-plus years of life. For many, Hip Hop is lifeblood. Hip Hop is certainly a critical part of the soundtrack of my life, as it is in the lives of billions of others around the world. Including George Floyd.

George Floyd was a rapper, aka Big Floyd. He was also a claustrophobe. Why this fact is not reported as a factor in his death is the reason I write this piece. Only a claustrophobe would understand Big Floyd’s reluctance to get in the back of that police car. A reluctance that is based in terror.

Photo Credit: AFP

George Floyd would likely have gotten into the back of that police car, took the ride to be booked, assigned bail, and eventually gone home to wait for his hearing on the charges of possessing and distributing a counterfeit bill. Except for the terror.

I know that terror all too well. I’m the guy you see waiting two or three times for another elevator, one not too full; who walks up five, six, ten flights of stairs rather than get in an elevator at all. The guy who despises revolving doors, who quit flying for eight years because I couldn’t walk past two or three rows into the cabin of an aircraft. I’ve have fantasized thousands of times about killing myself if I had to go to jail, much less getting into a police car.

Most people, in fact, the majority of people in our society do not understand mental illness; do not understand how it sucks the quality of life out of millions. Even worse, most people think it’s a weakness; a ploy to get sympathy, to get out of work or to “get a check.” The stigma of mental illness keeps those of us who deal with any form of it trapped. We have to suffer silently, constantly making adjustments just so that we can simply function day to day. Why can’t society make the adjustments? Why can’t people get the compassion, respect, services, support and healing that they need?

R.I.P. Big Floyd. Mental health stigma – you next. Bitch.