Maia Campbell: Setting the Record Straight
There have been technical difficulties with this blog of late, so I haven’t been able to write about poor Maia Campbell, daughter of influential writer and mental health advocate Bebe Moore Campbell, who passed away a few years ago. I paid tribute to her here.
The deal with Maia is that, after years of erratic behavior, a new video of such behavior went viral in the beginning of September. And despite her mother’s work on mental health issues because of Maia’s illness, and despite former reports of Maia’s being in the hospital for the illness, the gossip media lay the whole thing at the feet of drug use. And not sympathetically, either. TheHollywoodGossip.com put it this way:
Remember Maia Campbell? Yeah, we didn’t either. But apparently years ago she was in Tyrese’s “Lately” and “Sweet Lady” videos, and starred on LL Cool J’s sitcom In The House. As one of the main characters! She was a solid C-lister! Maia Campbell was also featured in a regular role as Nicole in the short-lived FOX series South Central, playing Larenz Tate’s girlfriend, and was on Thea.
Then she just disappeared. Well, Maia Campbell is back today. Apparently as a foul-mouthed prostitute who will do anything for drugs. Crack in particular. … Whenever it was filmed, it certainly does not portray Maia in a very flattering light, as she appears to be under the influence of narcotics such as crack.
Interesting that the first assumption people make about her erratic behavior is that it’s related to crack. Is that because she’s African-American? I believe when Britney Spears started talking with a British accent and behaving strangely (and similarly), crack didn’t enter the picture as a hypothesis.
But I digress.
It’s unfortunate that the below video was leapt upon with such vitriol and assuredness of Maia’s situation, when no one really knew a thing about what was happening with her.
Okay, so you see the people laughing at her. Very nice. The comments on the video over at YouTube are awful. The attitude online on blogs and gossip sites was pretty nasty as well, at least at first. Andrew Belonsky from Defamer (of Gawker parentage) posted the video and other facts about her and said, “Shit, man: this girl’s spouting absolute nonsense. Even her companion’s stupefied” and then went on to chronicle her criminal record. Later, he wrote: “Meanwhile, earlier this year some fans saw her sleeping on a beach and smoking meth. They say she smelled like a bum. We would laugh and point fingers, but, c’mon, this is just sad.” Hmm. Why do I get the feeling he’s not that sad? Then again, can you expect empathy from someone who writes about a woman smelling like a bum? And: Do people even understand what it means when another human being has strong bodily odors? It means they haven’t had appropriate access to sanitation resources. Don’t take your white porcelain toilets and showers for granted; you know how quickly you’ll smell like a bum if you have to live without them? I give you about three, four days. And can you imagine the feeling of having urine run down your pants leg — the grave humiliation, the hopelessness of your situation — and then have people laugh at you: “Damn, she smells like a bum!”
But I digress.
After the hostility about her situation — as well as significant concern from some genuinely kind fans — Campbell’s father and grandmother wanted to clear all the confusion, and did so by posting this on Bebe Moore Campbell’s website:
As a family, we have been struggling with Maia in her illness for quite some time. We continue to hold fast to our faith and hope that some day she will realize that healing will begin when she decides to reach out and accept the help and treatment that have been offered to her. We all have challenges in life that we must face, but when compound problems such mental illness and substance abuse are prevalent, it can appear that there is no way out. However, our sustaining faith and trust in God compels us to believe differently. We strongly believe that Maia will be healed.
We also know that Maia”s mother, the late Bebe Moore Campbell, who devoted much of her later years in life to mental health awareness and education, along with her family members and friends would welcome your prayers and support for Maia”s sustained recovery. In addition, we urge your support for efforts to diagnose and treat mental illness in our community.
We ask that you not only pray for Maia”s wellness, but also commit to understanding this insidious disease, which is devastating our loved ones and community. Help erase the “stigma” of mental illness, which is a very serious barrier to treatment, so that we can help those with the disease to live wholesome lives. Call for more treatment options and prevention strategies, have compassion for those stricken with this illness, and help guide those who have been unable to find their way to appropriate treatment. Additionally, support those families who are struggling to cope with loved ones with the disease because mental illness affects the entire family.
Finally, we ask that you support Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, which was established by Congressional Resolution, H. Con. Res. 134, in April 2008 and is celebrated during the month of July each year. It was established to enhance public awareness of mental illness, especially within minority communities. Please join us in this effort to bring attention to this problem, to identify resources and to strengthen the focus on treatment along with research relative to minorities and mental illness. This is the work that we continue on behalf of Bebe Moore Campbell.
Pretty amazing, right? Very powerful message. Something good is coming from this, after all. And the best of all, at least for now, is from the Daily News‘ Dan Gross:
FINALLY, SOME good news in the ongoing saga of Maia Campbell, the long-troubled actress whose drug use and bipolar disorder have kept her off television and made her the subject of Internet ridicule.
Campbell, the daughter of late author Bebe Moore Campbell, has been placed in a treatment facility, according to an interview that her father, Ellis Gordon, Jr., and her grandmother Doris C. gave to Essence.com.
I hope this is the beginning of a new journey for her, but ridicule or no, the combined demons of drug addiction and mental illness can be incredibly hard to battle. For more truthful, solid information on what are called co-occurring disorders, try the below links:
Co-Occurring Disorders: Integrated Dual Disorders Treatment [SAMHSA]
Co-Occurring Disorders [about.com]
Diagnosis Dictionary: Co-Occurring Disorders [Psychology Today]
liz | 2:45 PM | Uncategorized
Let’s hope Maia gets the treatment she deserves and is commonly represented. Sadly, “integrated treatment” too often fails to be what we would expect. It can simply be addicts to the right and mentally ill to the left. Hardly integrated treatment in word and deed.
I stumbled upon Bebe Moore Campbell’s “The 72-Hour Hold” and saw in it the raw truth of her experience of her daughter’s mental illness and concomitant drug use, thinly veiled as fiction. It would be a great “Book of the Month” during July, for many who want to better comprehend mental health issues in the minority community.
Joe is right about inadequate treatment options: As a bipolar woman, I’ve survived hospitalizations in which a ward full of dual sufferers were neatly segregated into these two categories and run through treatment protocols accordingly. No one ever even asked me about drug use, maybe because I was a middle-class professional. If they had, I would have revealed a daily marijuana habit that certainly didn’t help the bipolar disorder’s management.
If racism didn’t play at least a semi-subconscious roll in the responses to this video, I’ll eat my shoe. “Such as crack?” How the hell would they know what, if anything, she was using? By skin color?
Also, I’ve known people who work for Gawker & its subsidiaries, & it’s not surprising they’d have this kind response to Maia’s troubles. The unearned ego at that shithole is astonishing; it’s the kind of place that presumes its fame based solely on its place in Manhattan media circles. You’re not alone in digressing, Liz, but hopefully what goes around will eventually whip back around.
I was appalled at the comments that were posted about Maia, calling her such names like “a crack whore and a thief.” I think the low lifes who videotaped her and put the video on the internet, claiming to not know who she was, are pathetic scum. Even if they did not know who she was, which I find hard to believe, why would you record someone and post the video on the internet so that the whole world can see the person at a low point in their life? How would they have felt if someone had done the same to their mother, sister, or aunt?
I agree that people assumed Maia was on crack because she is a black woman. Britney Spears’ erratic behavior did not lead anyone to suggest that she was on crack. What, white people do not smoke crack? Was that because she is a white woman? Sure it was. We live in a world full of stereotypical, ignorant people. We also live in a world full of people who get joy out of seeing someone else at their lowest point. I am sad to say, but black people are definitely guilty of this. I am disgusted in the boys who videotaped Maia and posted it on the internet. I call these despicable poor excuse for men boys because they went out of their way to do this to her. It was a set up and nothing but a set up. How and why would someone do this to another human being? How and why would these idiots do this to their “sister”? As black people, we have it hard enough as it is. Therefore, we should be uplifting one another instead of kicking one another when one is down. All I have to say to these losers is what goes around, comes around, fools!!!
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