In Peace of Mind with Taraji, Golden Globe Award-Winning Actress Taraji P. Henson and her best friend and co-host Tracie Jade shine a spotlight on the challenging mental health issues facing us today – particularly of those in the Black community. Through personal interviews with both celebrities, experts and everyday people, the series shows how to provide support, bring awareness and help eliminate the stigmas of mental health issues.
- Title: Grief After Sudden Death with Asian Doll
- Description: With so many young Black men being lost to violence, Asian Doll and Pop Smoke’s brother, Obasi Jackson talk about the toll losing a loved one suddenly has taken on their mental health and how they are navigating their profound grief.
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Some highlights from the episode include:
- 2:50: Asian Doll describes King Von as her first love and soulmate
- Asian Doll: “This is my first love, this is my first real boyfriend.”
- Taraji: “What was it about him?”
- Asian Doll: “It was more like a soulmate. It was like, ‘Dang I met you before, how do I feel so connected to you?’ It was something about him though…”
- 3:43: Asian Doll shares how she felt when she heard King Von died
- Asian Doll: “Actually when he had passed away, when they said he was in critical condition, he had already passed away. Somebody from the hospital got in contact with me, one of the nurse’s daughters, and she was just was crying on the phone. She was like, ‘Asian I’m so sorry… my grandma works at the hospital, he passed away, they put an X on his bag.’ So, once they said he was dead on social media I already knew.”
- Taraji: “To get that call [about his death]… How did you feel?”
- Asian Doll: “My whole world just crashed. I had never felt a feeling like that. It’s like I was just broken. I want to say like six days before he passed we had broken up and I was real hard on him, I was not tryna see him, I did not want to see him at all.”
- Taraji:“It’s ok baby. You gotta let that happen. Let me tell you somethin’ sweetheart. It is ok to feel. You loved that man and he died suddenly. He was taken in a senseless murder. That’s not something you just push through and try to cope with.”
- Asian Doll: “I would think like…nah it’s impossible that Von would ever go out how he did.”
- 7:55: Taraji, Tracie and Asian Doll discuss her seeing a therapist
- Asian Doll: “No, I haven’t seen a therapist. I’m open to it; I feel like I need to talk to somebody because I don’t really have nobody that’s there that I just really just like sat down and talked to about nothing.”
- Taraji: “You need that, you know that. That’s a part of dealing and healing. So, we will definitely help you find some therapists, culturally competent therapists. One that looks like us.”
- Tracie: “And talks like us. And maybe has similar histories. It’ll help you take that extra sh*it off. All that stuff we gotta carry and be strong for everybody – everybody.”
- Taraji: “Who’s gonna be strong for you? If you out here being strong for everybody…that’s too much for you, baby.”
- Asian Doll: “It hit me – like if I just like be nonchalant to all my problems, within like a couple of months it’s gonna catch up and it’s gonna hit me.”
- Taraji: “If you don’t deal with it, it’s gon’ deal with you. Trust me, it will manifest itself in ways that you’ll be like ‘Oh my God, where did that come from? Why did I just punch a hole in the wall?’ You know what I mean? So I’m telling you that to say you will eventually, you will have to deal with it deeper than talking to friends and crying in the bathroom. You’re going to have to get this outside of yourself.”
- Tracie: “And really face what’s underneath all of that.”
- 9:26: Taraji on why she’s doing this show in relation to what Asian Doll is going through
- Asian Doll: “I’m young and I’m growing in the industry and I came from the streets so it’s like I’m becoming a woman on my own and I’m just figuring it out.”
- Taraji: “We know. Girl, we come from these streets!”
- Tracie: “That’s why we’re here!”
- Taraji: “That’s why we’re doing this show. Because we know the kids coming from the hood. We have trauma. We have real trauma.”
- 12:21: Asian Doll on what she would say to the young rappers that are watching
- Asian Doll: “You can chase this life as long as you want but this cycle it just keeps getting repeated and repeated and repeated to the point it’s like how many more rappers or music influencers are we going to lose until people just really wake up?”
- Tracie: “We always go back to mental health because a lot of that killing and violence and force is because we don’t deal with what’s happened…the trauma.”
- 13:08: In the second interview of the episode, Taraji and Tracie sit down with Pop Smoke’s brother, Obasi Jackson to discuss a man’s perspective of coping with sudden death and the loss of his brother
- Obasi on where he is on the spectrum of grieving and the importance of the vulnerability of men
- Obasi: “I’m a firm believer that men, Black men too, should be vulnerable…and allow themselves to open up and show the world what they’re feeling and who they truly are. Because we’ve been suppressed, we’ve been locked up and that’s where all these barbaric actions kind of come from. My mind can’t even grasp onto it sometimes.”
- Obasi on the countless murders of young rappers
- Obasi: “When does this stop? It’s not just Pop Smoke, it’s not just King Von, it’s not just Nipsey.”
- Taraji: “13 young rappers died last year – were murdered last year.”
- Obasi on where he is on the spectrum of grieving and the importance of the vulnerability of men
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