MURRAY, Utah — Resiliency is what both Gregory Noel and Stormey Nielsen say was necessary for them to navigate being Black in a predominantly white state.
“I’m actually a transracial adoptee, so I grew up in not only a white community but a white household as well,” Nielsen said. “Navigating race brought its challenges because there was a lot of education that needed to be done and a lot of scenarios that pop up, and you can’t go home and talk to your parents about it.”
“I just looked up from my paper and I looked around the room and I was the only Black person in the classroom… [in] my upbringing from Miami to Vegas to Utah, that was the first time I was ever the only Black person in a space,” said Noel, recalling one of his first experiences in Utah while receiving his undergraduate degree.
Noel and Nielsen shared how experiences with racism and feeling like the “only one” have impacted their mental health over the years, both in education and the community. Now, both are mental and behavioral health professionals. They recognize the barriers Black Utahns and Black Americans face when it comes to accessing mental health resources. According to the American Psychological Association, some Black Americans experience race-related trauma and PTSD, but mental health is often a taboo topic in the Black community.