Lemme say, I'm one of a few black kids I know (especially AFAB) that got diagnosed with ADHD in the 90. Like Early 90s.
And it was a Fucking Stars Aligned MIRACLE.
Because in order for me to be diagnosed or even had it thought to be the following had to happen:
My mother worked at a daycare before I was born.
It's predominantly black but there are other races there (yes this is Important. Please also keep this in mind that this is Early in research about ADHD and ADD at the TIME).
A lady (black) recently got her son diagnosed. My mother was talking to her because she didn't know, the information wasn't wildly available. She had to learn by word of mouth what went on how to find these people.
The programs for it were available but weren't Affordable for my mother.
I had primarily White Doctors (yes this is important)
My first two doctors were actually *good* doctors. I had my diagnoses and was put on Ritalin * (sp) then.
I had a teacher in Kindergarten that didn't know what ADHD was(White teacher). She actually was a good teacher that decided to research what information was available at the time and Took an Active interest in how to teach me and the other kids in the class.
The Previous teacher (White) in Pre-K didn't do any of this. She didn't bother to actually teach. My mother recounts that this lady for real just said "I don't know. Blackmantagirl just got the devil in her."
That is to say: She thought I was being disobedient on purpose and as a result I was 100 percent usually sent to the office for a paddling (it was legal and it was a Private Christian school. SO...).
*skip Some Years and at least Three terrible teachers*
I got another doctor (white) that I was transferred to. What a lot of people fail to realize is a lot of medications that they do NOT recommend for kids now is usually because they've already tested it on kids before and it was BAD News, Jim.
So, the new white Doctor was a dismissive type of ass. The type that threatens kids because he wanted to flex his power over them. (I have literally been threatened by him. He told me he'd tell my mother to cut whatever hobby I liked then if I wasn't responsive to whatever the fuck he wanted to talk about)
At this point, I'm pretty sure he's writing up that I'm manipulative and possibly had ODD.
I was prescribed medications that they really tell you not to give kids these days unless like you absolutely last resort had to because of the side-effects.
There's one medication they gave me that sounds a LOT like Prismatic's but I don't know the name. I know what it is if I see it ever again.
But this medication definitely caused me to Hallucinate. (or rather believe I was infested with fleas) It was bad enough that my grandmother, who's a nurse, basically said Enough Of that and just chunked the meds out. All of them.
(one other one had a side effect of repressing your appetite that we didn't know about. And so I had been taking it before Lunch. It SUCKED that we didn't know about it.)
Anyway, the point of this is also:
Even when Black Kids are rightly diagnosed, we're still going to get shit from people who either think we're faking, or don't care to actually do any work about it. Instead, they'll punish us MORE. Or throw us in the SpEd classes to get rid of us in the general classes if they don't want to do any of the work.
Because that's ALSO what happened to me the following year after the Bad Year.
I actually could read quite well and could do normal course work, but they decided due to the former and my medical history that I should be in this class. (I could see it if they wanted me in there for things like Math, because it's my weakest subject and I have trouble understanding anything but.. I digress).
I was place in a class where people who actually needed it were at a very slower pace and school level than me. (and even then, the schools 100 percent failed one student who couldn't read at his grade level. He was reading at a first grade level. He was in seventh grade.)
And a large part of this is because there aren't enough POC (particularly at that time Black Doctors) in the field. Because it deeply matters when you get a doctor that is very familiar with your culture and the way your people work.
It prevents a lot of abuse and misdiagnoses. (that was literally my issues with a lot of places is because until I was in a predominately black school, I was treated pretty awful by teachers and principals that didn't Understand the Culture and didn't WANT to)
I didn't get a black doctor until my mid teens. When I've figured out how to manage shit my damn self with coping mechanics (but I definitely should've had an actual Doctor to Help. Actual people that could've given me better tools.).
He actually understood and thought I was misdiagnosed. But the main point is he treated me like a person.
He was interested in what I had to say. He didn't dismiss me. He understood what my issues were and was able to explain them to my mother in a way that didn't give me protective mode. (that White doctor further up that was an ass literally upset my mother that I ended up hating him for it. )
My Kindergarten Teacher was also a Good Person and Good teacher. She put in the work. She tried to understand even if we were culturally different, she didn't send me to the principal's office every time I fucked up as a kid. She tried to make sense of it and tried hard to keep me in class. (I went from literally an F to an A, is what I'm saying.)
Both that doctor and that Teacher Saw humanity in me as a kid and I'm forever grateful for them in particular. (and also a few others but mainly them.)
Like if more black and other KOCs had these types of people, that ODD wouldn't even be a thing (even for white kids because I think the entire thing is just BULLSHIT excuse to be an asshole to people. Full stop. ).
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