Notes from the Abyss

MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (Oct. 13, 2023) — The stories “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, “Citizen: ‘You are in the dark, in the car…'” by Claudia Rankine, and “Recitatif,” by Toni Morrison, focus on the burdens of identity—whether accepted or forced upon one—on minorities, especially African Americans.

All three of these stories touched me personally, especially as all three addressed elements of my own life from my dad’s attitudes toward our rural Southern heritage as in “Everyday Use,” the repeated assaults of everyday racism on my own life, as in “Citizen,” or the social upheavals of the 1960s and 1970s as in “Recitatif.”

The story that had most relevance to my life today—at least my professional life today—was “Citizen.” Rankine hits me where I work in the second section of the poem:

. . . Sitting there staring at the closed garage door you are reminded that a friend once told you there exists a medical term — John Henryism — for people exposed to stresses stemming from racism. They achieve themselves to death trying to dodge the build up of erasure. Sherman James, the researcher who came up with the term, claimed the physiological costs were high. . . . (Rankine 2014, 543)

As an EMS provider, I found the reference to John Henryism interesting. I had to find out if it was a thing. And it is! I’m not sure when Sherman James coined the term, but his first published paper referring to John Henryism in a paper reporting on blood pressure among Black men (James et al., 1983). The phenomenon as James described it was much as Rankine phrased it: people from disadvantaged minorities achieving themselves to death trying to overcome the obstacles put in their way.

In the early/mid 1970s, several provocative papers were published which demonstrated that “high effort” coping (i.e., sustained cognitive and emotional engagement) with difficult psychosocial stressors produce substantial increases in heart rate and systolic blood pressure, increases which persist as long as individuals actively work at trying to eliminate the stressor. (James 1994, 165)

Since James began researching John Henryism, he and other researchers have found it is not all uniform. There are negative health effects, such as a higher incidence of hypertension. But the severity of these effects vary by gender and socioeconomic status. And the effects are not all negative, either. John Henryism may have protective effects against major depression and suicidal ideation.

Understanding this bears upon my treatment of many of my patients in understanding how they got to be in the shape they’re in. There is more to learn, but I have no more time to discuss it here.

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally written for an American literature class at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College on Oct. 13, 2023.

References

James, Sherman A. 1994. “John Henryism and the health of African-Americans.” Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 18 (2): 163-182. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01379448.

James, Sherman A., Sue A. Hartnett, and William D. Kalsbeek. 1983. “John Henryism and blood pressure differences among black men.” Journal of Behavioral Medicine 6 (3): 259-278. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01315113.

Kahsay, Eskira, and Briana Mezuk. 2022. “The Association Between John Henryism and Depression and Suicidal Ideation Among African-American and Caribbean Black Adolescents in the United States.” Journal of Adolescent Health 71 (6): 721-728. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.07.006.

Rankine, Claudia. 2014. “Citizen: ‘You are in the dark, in the car…’” Poetry 203 (6): 543-545.