Whitney Houston, Drug Addiction, “Lesbianism,” and Black America’s Take on Therapy

The following post is no slight against the LGBTQ community. Please do not lift my words out of context! I am merely commenting on African Americans’ struggle to accept mental health issues and to seek therapy.

Like the rest of the African American world, I was completely enthralled with the New Edition mini-series presented on BET. Each night, I tuned in and sang along with the songs. Many of them form the soundtrack of my childhood, and I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first fell in love with those tunes. So, when it was announced that Bobby Brown, the “King of R & B (more like the original bad boy of R & B)” would have his own movie mini-series, I COULD NOT WAIT!

However, between New Edition and Bobby Brown, there were several feature documentaries released about Brown’s ex-white, the late Whitney Houston. Black America, for years we have all blamed Bobby for Whitney Houston’s downward spiral into drug addiction. She was a Black American Princess (at least she was marketed that way) who inexplicably married a guy from the projects. To make matters worse, he had a bunch of children! Black America, we have all also heard the whispered rumors that Whitney Houston had a secret lesbian relationship with her best friend, Robyn Crawford.

I have a question for us, collectively: are we more willing to accept that Whitney Houston was a secretive lesbian rather than the known fact that she was a cocaine addict for a very long time and more than likely needed therapy? Again, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with one’s sexuality, but we could never confirm those rumors. But, we do know some things about the nature of drug abuse. Right? Unfortunately, many of us who were born in the late 1970s or early 1980s are all too familiar with drug addict behavior and the symptoms of that long-term disease. We lived through the crack epidemic until crackheads became a joke on many sitcoms and stand-up sets.

I NEVER accepted the “fact” that Bobby Brown introduced his ex-wife to cocaine. Honestly, Bobby more than likely enabled Whitney’s addictions, which is probably why she chose him as marriage partner in the first place. Drug addicts ROUTINELY latch on to people who allow them to carry on the addiction without consequences. Whitney was no exception. Like many stars who have addictions, Robyn was more than likely Whitney’s “runner” rather than her lover. It is a common fact, at least in the Rock-and-Roll world, that stars keep a certain kind of person (to put it nicely) about them in order to go into certain kinds of environments (to put it nicely) and retrieve their “pick-me-ups.” After all, with the ever-increasing mania for news about stars’ personal lives, they cannot risk the bad press if caught with a certain kind of substance (to put it nicely).

By the time of her death, Whitney Houston’s struggle with cocaine was very public. And you know what speaks volumes to me? African Americans are still talking about a “lesbian” relationship with Robyn, and almost no one comments on Whitney’s tortured mental life and the cocaine habit she used to escape it. Houston, like many stars, needed help and we laughed at her antics until it was not funny any more. By then, Whitney was gone. Sadly, her daughter also died from a drug cocktail (though I am sure some sort of criminality was involved in her death).

Historically, African Americans and other minorities DO NOT seek the therapy that we know on an intellectual level that we need. Sadly, Houston’s demise was brought about by addiction and lack of mental health. Sadly, it could have totally been avoided. Sadly, African Americans are more willing to speculate on a “lesbian” relationship with no evidence to confirm it, rather than what was always right in our faces. Drug addiction and mental health issues are swept under the rug in our communities. Many of us are even taught that mental illness is a sign of weak faith in God! Sometimes, I can’t help but wonder how many other bright stars will be lost, because we refuse to take these things seriously. Drug abuse, mental illness, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, etc. are no laughing matter. When we see an African American on the series Hoarders, that person more than likely needs some kind of counseling or therapy. And of those African Americans who need counseling or therapy on that show, it is more than likely grief counseling. They are not just nasty people: they need mental health. And we do not know if Whitney Houston were a lesbian: we do know that she needed help.

For more information on famous stars who were addicted to drugs, please visit the “Famous Drug Abusers” from the American Addiction Center: https://drugabuse.com/addiction/famous-drug-abusers/