Chamiqua Holdsclaw, WNBA superstar and Washington Mystic finally explains her unexplained absence and desertion of her team during the season.

Depression.

I'm certainly glad that she finally came out and spoke up about her absence because it left a bad taste in the mouth of many local folks. Now that everyone knows that it was depression, we all sympathize with her.

The issue of depression is a difficult one in the Black community. If I had money, I would start a non-profit dealing with the issue of depression and mental illness in the Black communities. There is a stigma attached to depression that is more intense than that in the regular population. It may be seen as a sign of weakness or what have you . . . I don't know. I just feel that there are immense cultural barriers obstructing mental health issues and solutions in the Black community.

I was talking with an acquaintance years ago and she told how she went through an incident that spiraled her into depression. She had a horrible time getting up in the morning, the house was falling apart and she couldn't do anything. Finally, when she went to see a doctor, he told it was depression. Her response was, "I'm a child of God and children of God do not get depressed." It illustrated one of the cultural barriers, that as Christians, who should be filled with the "joy of the Lord," depression may signal a weakness of faith.

While the Black community may tolerate a lot of things, lack of faith is not one that people tolerate. We sing, "We've come this far by faith," "I don't feel no ways tired, I've come too far from where I've started from . . .," "We shall overcome" and more. The story of blackness has been precisely facing interminable odds and defeating them by faith, no less. So to lack faith cuts at the heart of Black identity.

But if we can get the notion out that mental illness is like any other physiological ailment and is not at all indicative of weakness or lack of faith, then we can begin to make progress.

Kendall Gill, an NBA player was one of the first athletes to come out and openly admit his problems with depression. He frequently makes the point that it is a curable disease. Now with Holdsclaw out, we are inching towards shattering negative stereotypes of mental illness in the Black community.