Coined by Samuel Johnson and popularized by Winston Churchill, the “black dog” has become a ubiquitous expression for depression around the globe. With rates of depression on the rise and a more open and tolerant public conversation around mental health, It’s no surprise that more people are becoming comfortable talking about their mental health issues.

But why the black dog?

Megan McKinlay wrote an article for the Black Dog Institute examining the history of this expression, suggesting black is an appropriate metaphor for darkness, fear, melancholy and disease. Fair enough. Blackness has always been associated with negativity and you don’t need to think hard to come up with a list of examples.

Theres the black dog, black heart, black magic, black market, black-mail and black list to name a few.

Getting back to the black dog for a second though, there is another dog that is just a dangerous and pervasive yet only effects people of colour. For the sake of this article, lets coin it the white dog.

If you’re asking why white, you’re probably white. Being white isn’t about skin tone. Whiteness has no consistent uniform metric. Whiteness shifts and changes depending on who is in and who is out. People that are now white weren’t always. The Irish, the Jews and even the Germans were at one point not white. So what is the white dog?

The white dog isn’t always aggressive. Sometimes it manifests itself as innocent and attractive, whispering into our subconscious without us even paying attention.

The white dog is the invisible dog that follows people of colour everywhere they go, reminding them of their colour, reminding them they need to confirm to societies expectations of whiteness, reminding them that they’re out of place and different. This is the dog of unspoken internal hatred. The dog that tells us to straighten our hair or to drop our accent, to be ashamed of our cultures, languages and histories.

Carlton Banks from the Fresh Prince epitomises the POC who has internalised whiteness. The term “acting white”, often used pejoratively, tries to insult and expose POC who have hidden or abandoned their culture and colour out of fear, humiliation, weakness or for personal gain.

While people of colour are intimately familiar with this deranged animal, the surprising thing is how ignorant and unaware more white people are. White people often don’t know the degrees to which POC self-police in order to go through life unmolested, going so far as to change themselves under the scalpel so that they’ll draw less attention to themselves.

Fanon said:

“The colonized is elevated above his jungle status in proportion to his adoption of the mother country’s cultural standards.”

While many POC might not live directly under colonisation today, the remnants of colonialism and imperialism are embedded in our DNA. Fanon understood the white dog. He saw how destructive this dog was to POC as it invaded their subconscious. While white became superior, colour became inferior.

It’s this inferiority that the white dog injects into us, day in and day out as it follows us. As if the trauma of being a POC wasn’t enough we’re constantly dragged down by the unrelenting pitter patter of feet that invades our most sacred and intimate thoughts, reminding us of our place in this world and pushing us to hate ourselves for who are.

Other times the dog is aggressive and confrontational. Attacking us directly, exposing our fears and tearing down our self confidence and sacred beliefs.

Ta-Nehisi Coates explains this more succintly:

“Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body — it is heritage.”

The white dog will never leave us while we live in this racist system until we’re white, or dead.

So while the recent push against the stigma of mental health is a much needed change, lets also remember the unforgiving pressure that comes with living while coloured. Lets recognise the struggles that we still endure.

I’m all for mental health, but im also for POC. People (white people) need to realise the destructive effects whiteness is having on our lives and so while I can get behind campaigns to reduce the stigma of mental health, if it also isn’t heavily anti-racist then its just a waste of time.

As if trying to survive while being coloured wasn’t hard enough, you have to deal with white people who think our colour is a utility for their enjoyment.

John Henrik Clarke said:

We are the only people who are criticized for loving ourselves; and white people think when you love yourself, you hate them.

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that its tough being a person of colour and we shouldn’t feel like we have to carry this burden in silence. The white dog is real. Speak its name. Recognise its power.

If the racist Winston Churchill can get a free pass for being depressed and praised for talking about his “black dog” then its time for the struggles and pressures that POC endure to be recognised, respected and managed.

When black kids have higher rates of PTDS than soldiers, when post traumatic slave syndrome exists, when sheriffs talk about the need to keep black people locked up so they can use them as slave labour to fight fires, when indigenous australians are the most incarcerated people globally and when being anything but white is a deviation from the norm then maybethe stratospheric rates of mental health in the non-white community aren’t so surprising.

If we can get past the cliches of invisible animals and move towards real reform then that would be ideal but in the interim maybe adopting the language of the oppressor and talking about invisible white dogs is necessary, especially when people think a dog is more important than the lives of a million black people.