How the Joker created a platform for Mental Health Awareness

by chef Chantel Jackson

I had to explain to one of my closest friends that she could not bring her kids to this film. Her like many others are expecting a crime fighting, cape crusading film to inspire her boys. A film, that would cause the sales of DC costumes to skyrocket in Halloween stores across the nation. I can picture it now, her kids one wearing a Batman ensemble complete with built in Abs and the other wearing Joker, bringing a beautifully choreographed rendition of a scene from joker to life.

But as I imagined I was right, this was not a film FOR kids, but a film on HOW kids childhood trauma can effect and shape their destiny. How one can let the darkness lead them on a path of destruction or On a path of justice.

I won’t go in to too much detail but the film listed all the ingredients to create the perfect Serial killer. A dash of bullying, a sprinkle of being overlooked, a heaping cup of child abuse and trauma, a level scoop of childhood abandonment; cover and smother with a crazy, single, brainwashing mother and bake in the oven for over 40 years.

Nevertheless, I mean we as humans are sick and demented, ALL OF US. There is no such thing as normal, no one can truly define normal, I mean seriously what is normal. The fact that I myself go through spiritual and mental warfare daily, I am shocked i have survived this long.

“All it takes is one bad day,” the Joker says in the comic, suggesting that we’re all just one traumatic event away from madness. “

Seriously, I finally understand the Brittany Spears melt down. And yet I share how I feel with no one and hide behind laughter and a smile.

Sound familiar.