Making Americans Afraid Again
I have put forth my perceptions on what it means to be a person of color and mentally ill in our society. For many these two states of being are counted as two strikes against them. Race and mental illness are routinely criminalized by many in America, and these views are reflected in the state’s treatment of people of color-especially black people-with mental illness:
The unjustified killings of people of color with mental illness became a serious point of discussion during the Obama years, as too many confrontations between mentally ill people of color and the police were ending with the blood of the unarmed person being spilled onto the streets. Those of us who were still breathing remained in the crosshairs of law enforcement.
But at least with Obama in office there was the hope that the situation would be improved. The Obama justice department forced police departments across the country to review their policies for enforcing the law, an important victory for civil rights.
Obama also understood how important it was for people with mental health issues to gain access to effective treatment programs. A provision of the Affordable Care Act is that mental health services are to be covered by insurance carriers, which led to millions more people gaining access to critical mental health care. Obama also increased funding for mental health programs by 500 billion dollars during the eigth year of his presidency. The increase in funding was a response to the scourge of gun violence that was being committed by mentally disturbed individuals; however, Obama understood something very important about violence and mental health. Per ABC News:
Obama made clear that the vast majority of people with mental health issues are not violent and that they are far more likely to be victims of a violent crime.
That’s right. People with mental illness are the least violent among us and are more likely to be the victims of violence. Treatment programs make it less likely that people with mental illnesses will committ and suffer from violence.
In Obama, we had a president who understood the importance of police reform and criminal justice reform, and who understood the importance of mental health treatment. There were still some huge barriers for people due to race, but that was a problem that would have be addressed if Hillary Clinton had became our next president.
Donald Trump was elected president by the American people instead. And then Donald Trump chose Jeff Sessions to be his Attorney General, which guaranteed that police reform and criminal justice reform would become less of a priority. Almost immediately upon taking the oath, Mr. Sessions directed the justice department to stop monitoring troubled police departments, striking a blow to the civil rights of black and brown people across the country, and giving police departments the license to abuse their authority.
The election of Donald Trump constitutes a direct threat to the Affordable Act as well. It is important to note that if the Affordable Care Act is repealed by Trump and the Republicans, millions of Americans will lose access to affordable mental health care. The loss of access to affordable mental healthcare will mean that more people of color-and other marginalized groups- with mental illnesses will become more susceptible to discrimantion and violence from the state. Per The Nation:
For marginalized groups, further erosion of mental-health care would have devastating civil-rights ramifications for impoverished and underserved communities. Chronic depression, anxiety, and drug abuse gnaw away at distressed families and youth. Prison systems are crowded with failures of the health-care system, as are the ugly inequities in the special-education system that subject children of color to arrest, incarceration, and violence instead of needed treatment and developmental support.
I am a black man, the son of an immigrant, and I have a mental illness. I am more scared than I have ever been now that Trump and the Republicans have been given the keys to power. But I am not only afraid for myself, I am afraid for the millions of other marginalized people who could be made to suffer from Trump et. al.
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