BellLetsTalk or BellShutUp?
Today is the 25th of January. So that means it's #BellLet'sTalk day all over social media.
"We've started a conversation about mental health. Now, let’s take it one step further. Let’s fight to end the stigma surrounding mental illness."
This is a quote from their twitter account, which is quite dope that Bell Canada wants to attack the stigma surrounding mental illness. Especially when the black community has been plagued with mental illness, whether overtly or not. As a kid my teachers would always complain that I was hyper-active and could be suffering from ADD(now ADHD). My mother would never yield to that diagnosis and continued to allow me to live without the thought that I could be sick in the head...lol We can discuss whether she was correct or not another day.
But, let's get back to Bell. They are the largest communications company in Canada. Well "technically", as they share their infrastructure with Telus, and the rest of their landline services are obsolete now that we use internet for everything. The question becomes, why have they taken such interest in mental health? And why do we need to "Talk" about it with Bell? I have been speaking to a few homies over social media. We all share similar viewpoints that Bell is just doing this for the press and publicity, but it seems like we aren't the only ones who feel that way.
"Former employee Maria McLean calls 'Bell Let's Talk' a tough pill to swallow so soon after her firing"
"Maria McLean said she was fired from her job as an afternoon radio host at K93 in Grand Falls one hour after she gave her supervisor a note from her doctor stating she needed two weeks off work. She feels being open that day about her struggles with mental health was the reason she was fired" source
Now it's clear that one branch of the company does not represent the entire movement, but it also shows the lack of tenacity in Bell's authentic push to end mental illness stigma, if they have not purged that way of thinking out of their own hierarchy first.
I personally believe the entire campaign to be a load of BS, as mental illness is in the eye of the beholder, and from the perspective of an antiquated indigenous person, we would all be considered mentally ill. Think about it, the fact that we purposely live on un-fertile soil working non-consequential jobs to maintain a non-consequential economy so that we can import our sustenance from other fertile regions. I must conclude that such an environment would breed nothing but mentally ill people. Either way, the hashtag has gone viral and everywhere across the social inter-web people are sharing their views with #BellLetsTalk.
