UPDATED: 11:00 a.m. ET, May 10, 2023
Originally published: Sept. 10, 2021
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The recent death of a former professional basketball player-turned-NBA executive was revealed by his daughter to be a suicide.
While addressing the death of Lance Blanks in a moving column that ESPN published on Tuesday, Riley Blanks Reed spoke about how her father died at the age of 56.
“On the morning of May 3, 2023, my father, Lance Blanks, took his life,” Blanks Reed wrote before adding later:
People will ask, “How did we not see it?”
And people will say, “This wasn’t him. Someone like him wouldn’t do this.”
People will want more information.
But the fact is we will never truly know why. And we don’t need to. All we need to do is remember him, honor him, celebrate him and pour our love into the family that made him happy.
All we need to know is that, oftentimes, the people in the most pain are the giants in our lives.
MORE: Suicide Rates Are Soaring For Black People. Here’s What You Can Do To Help
Blanks’ death draws attention to a rising trend of Black people taking their own lives. While overall statistics point to Black people typically having among the lowest suicide rates, data from recent years shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to change those numbers for the worst.
Whether it’s due to mental illness, stress, feelings of hopelessness or any of the multiple other reasons why people commit suicide, it is something that affects folks from all walks of life. Keep reading to find a list of notable Black people who have died by suicide.
Data provided by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center show that from 2010 to 2019 — the most recent years statistics were available for — Black people in the U.S. had a suicide rate of 7.4% per 100,000 people. That is compared to the overall rate of 13.2% per 100,000 people for…
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