Uncovering the Hidden History of Racism in Mental Health Care | First Draft

Shutdown coverage usually dissolves into horse-race talk, but Susan J. Demas wanted to know what the chaos actually means. MSNBC anchor Antonia Hylton laid it bare: Misinformation from the president has turned health care subsidies into a false fight about benefits for undocumented immigrants. That distortion isn’t just sloppy messaging — it’s how cruelty gets rebranded as fiscal prudence. When one party controls the government and still drives it into the ditch, dysfunction is the design.

The conversation shifted to history as Antonia explained how Crownsville, the institution at the center of her book, Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum, was born from backlash after Reconstruction. She called it “a strange full-circle moment,” because the rhetoric that justified locking away Black Americans then is echoing in attacks on the homeless now. Vulnerability has always been recast as threat. Susan drew a line to Trump’s deployment of troops in cities — another show of force against the people most in need of care.

Antonia also discussed how her personal experience helped inspire her research, recounting months of trying to secure treatment for a loved one in psychosis. It was an “an earth-shattering experience” even with good insurance and professional connections. If her family nearly fell through the cracks, what chance does anyone have without those safety nets? Cuts and the re-opening of old asylums would only worsen this crisis, warehousing people in cells instead of treating them as patients.

Trust is the key. At Crownsville, the introduction of Black doctors and nurses transformed outcomes because patients finally believed they were seen and valued. Antonia said “that’s when you start to see a lot of the best new treatments come in,” and it’s why gutting DEI research today carries such dangerous weight. Susan connected it to the Trump administration’s assault on medical science itself, where whole communities are being pushed away from the very systems meant to serve them.

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