It's National Suicide Prevention Day and the only thing we're thinking about is the number of Black girls who were taught to become fluent in everyone else's needs before learning the language of their own.

Black girls are not your emotional caretakers. They are not your peacekeepers. Burden bearers. They are not proof or evidence of what one person can survive. They are CHILDREN. And no child should be required to make suffering look graceful. When these qualities are constantly rewarded, we have to ask ourselves what we're actually teaching—that she is most valuable when she is useful, composed, accommodating, and in control. What happens when she isn't? What happens when she is angry, overwhelmed, needy, confused, exhausted, afraid? Does she still believe she is worthy of care? Does she know how to ask for help? Does she trust that someone will come when she says, “I can't do this anymore?” Suicide prevention is not just about intervening at the point of crisis. It is about creating a world where Black girls don't have to disappear into themselves before we notice they're hurting. Black girls—and we will die on this hill—deserve protection, NOT projection. They deserve softer language. And we will keep saying it until care is no longer something Black girls have to earn by first proving how much they can survive.