i know. i’m late. it’s been months since janelle monáe’s second album, archandroid came out. I have listened to it endlessly. i know every chord change, i can hum every song in the correct key before it has even started. i took a little break from the cd for a while. i thought we needed some space, but i pulled it back out this week. i could go on and on about how much I love janelle monáe.  about how I think her gender bending is so rad and revolutionary. i could talk about how i am convinced that she is the perfectly illegitimate love-child of octavia butler and michael jackson. or how my years of singing in the florida grand opera, and degree in classical music could not have prepared me for her genius. the way she uses the theme from Moonlight from the “Suite of Bergamasque” by Debussy made me teary the first time i heard it. there is no doubt in my mind, that android is a genius.

but this is not a music analysis. this is about the way i cringe every time I hear monáe sing the word “schizo.” there. i said it. and let’s be clear, i love the song tightrope- and i love the way that monáe is able to use the song to critique the mental health care systems, over-medication, and and other systems of oppression throughout her music. i really appreciated cripchick’s interpretation of the tightrope video. i think monáe is brilliant. maybe that’s why her use of the word “schizo” is so jarring, and disappointing to me. her lyrics are beautiful. meaningful. why oh why would she include this abelist language in numerous songs? i think she uses the term schizo in at least 10 times. exhibit 1: like a “schizo” running wild. i guess i wanted her to “get it.” but, i realize, she’s human, and not impenetrable to ableism in a society that constantly reinforces it. and of course, monáe is not alone. we could write dissertations on ableism in pop culture, stigma of mental health in the african-american community or a need for respectful, people first language.

during graduate school, i worked as a therapist at community connections- the largest and one of the oldest not-for-profit out-patient mental health clinics in dc. we only worked with folks who were given axis-I DSM diagnoses, which includes bi-polar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia (among others). I worked on the trauma team- so specifically with women who had a history of abuse, as well as an axis-I diagnosis. many of the women who worked with me were living and surviving with schizophrenia.

this does not make me an expert. but i have watched as doctors, other social workers, and service providers talked around clients i was accompanying to meetings or appointments. devalued them, used ableist language, and treated them as if they weren’t able to advocate for themselves. I often had to [consistently] redirect doctors to make sure they talked to clients, instead of me. and also, in my very limited knowledge and experience, i have never seen folks I worked with shaking wildly as a result of their schizophrenia. maybe shaking from nervousness about visiting the doctor or even as a side effect of medication. but no wild, uncontrolled bouts of shaking have ever crossed my path.  not from anyone diagnosed with schizophrenia, anyway.

using this ablelist language, minimizing a diagnosis (and experience) like schizophrenia down to a derogatory term like “schizo” only perpetuates myths about folks being crazy, dangerous, and perhaps needing permanent care, or at least a full-out lock down. people living with schizophrenia are not inherently violent (not anymore violent than people who aren’t living with schizophrenia) and not necessarily more prone to violence. this may seem obvious, but people living with schizophrenia are people first. mothers, veterans, survivors, sisters. they are not “schizos.”

what do you think?