Higgins: I was really struck by what you said about PTSD because we had conversations earlier about how—especially since 2001 PTSD and traumatic brain injury— the “signature wounds of war” have been common in discourse about veterans. But I'm curious, do you think that Black men especially are denied that benefit of a doubt when it comes to mental health? Are Black men looked at as something that is other, that doesn't get recognized as having mental health problems or PTSD, or traumatic brain injury, because they're excluded from mental health care through the VA.

Brookshire: I think there's a multifaceted answer to that question. I think, one, there's historical evidence, and, I believe, there's been medical studies about people who believe that Black folk experience pain at different levels than white folk. That's not true. We are fighting the same wars, overcoming the same hurdles, oftentimes greater challenges.

I also think that there is a real discount to the weight of discrimination, and the scars that leaves on Black folk who've served historically, and even today, if they come up against it, and so that's discounted. When somebody puts in a claim, and maybe they're talking about their experiences in war, but they also bring race into the equation, it is dismissed.

I can't answer exactly why the racial disparities exist in such a gross way…persisting to exist the way that they do, but I also know that there's a lack of distrust over decades of generations of service.

Even when it comes to mental health, it's not that Black folk don't suffer the same wounds of war, but they might have different ways of dealing with it, so documentation also becomes an issue. When you're in the military, your white counterparts might go seek that mental health care. Whereas if you're trying to go seek it as a Black soldier—man or woman—because I don't think it genuinely makes a difference, you could be seen as someone who's trying to get out of their job, who's trying to make an excuse. Because you're also seen as somebody who just doesn't feel pain or experience mental anguish on the same levels as your white counterparts, and your experiences are discounted in that way.

Higgins: It's also that knowledge of how to navigate institutional structures, how to seek out help with the VA, and how to file for a petition to upgrade a discharge.

RB: … and a lack of cultural competencies that often exist within the VA itself.