Overview

In 1980, Charles Wetli---a Miami-based medical examiner and self-proclaimed “cult expert” of Afro-Caribbean religions---identified what he called “excited delirium syndrome.” Soon, medical examiners began using the syndrome regularly to describe the deaths of Black men and women during interactions with police. Police and medical examiners claimed that Black people with so-called excited delirium exhibited superhuman strength induced from narcotics abuse. It was fatal heart failure that killed them, examiners said, not forceful police restraints. In Excited Delirium, Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús examines this fabricated medical diagnosis and its use to justify and erase police violence against Black and Brown communities. Exposing excited delirium syndrome’s flawed diagnostic criteria, she outlines its inextricable ties to the criminalization of Afro-Latiné religions. Beliso-De Jesús demonstrates that it is yet a further example of the systemic racism that pervades law enforcement in which the culpability for state violence is shifted from the state onto its victims. In so doing, she furthers understanding of the complex layers of medicalized state-sanctioned violence against people of color in the United States.

Full Product Details

Author:   Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Weight:   0.590kg
ISBN:  

9781478026327

ISBN 10:   1478026324
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   06 August 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Author’s Note: In Warning . . .  xi Introduction: Haunted  1 Journal Entry: Monday, September 20, 2021  10 Emerald Hills, California 1. Nightmares  13 Journal Entry: Saturday, September 25, 2021  26 San Francisco, California 2. Bodies  20 Journal Entry: Saturday, October 2, 2021  43 Antioch, California 3. Murdered  46 Journal Entry: Tuesday, November 2, 2021  58 Stanford, California 4. Manic  60 Journal Entry: Wednesday, October 13, 2021  74 Emerald Hills, California 5. Panicked  77 Journal Entry: Friday, December 17, 2021  95 Stanford, California 6. Tormented  98 Journal Entry: Wednesday, March 16, 2022  117 Stanford, California 7. Brutalized  121 Journal Entry: Tuesday, December 2, 2021  134 Stanford, California 8. Excited  137 Journal Entry: Saturday, January 8, 2022  150 Oakland, California 9. Forced  152 Journal Entry: Tuesday, March 22, 2022  166 Stanford, California 10. Delirious  169 Journal Entry: Sunday, April 10, 2022  182 Emerald Hills, California 11. Conjured  184 Journal Entry: Wednesday, May 25, 2022  195 Antioch, California 12. Empower  197 Journal Entry: Thursday, September 8, 2022  210 Princeton, New Jersey Afterword  211 Modupué  215 Acknowledgments  219 Glossary  221 Notes  227 Bibliography  273 Index  293  

Reviews

"""At once painful, intimate, and full of insight, Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús's powerful book sits at the intersection of memoir, anthropology, and religious studies. The spirits have guided her pen to offer a prayer that exposes the lie of 'excited delirium syndrome, ' and, hopefully, will help in the collective undoing of police violence in this country.""--Eddie S. Glaude Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor, Princeton University"

“At once painful, intimate, and full of insight, Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús’s powerful book sits at the intersection of memoir, anthropology, and religious studies. The spirits have guided her pen to offer a prayer that exposes the lie of ‘excited delirium syndrome,’ and, hopefully, will help in the collective undoing of police violence in this country.” -- Eddie S. Glaude Jr., James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor, Princeton University “An unflinching tour de force, Excited Delirium casts a stark light on the shadows where racism, medicine and systemic injustice meet. With meticulous research and exquisite prose, leading anthropologist Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús challenges readers to confront uncomfortable truths and the ways science is manipulated to advance narratives of power and social control—in this case, through a fictitious syndrome that has justified the deaths of Black and Brown people during encounters with law enforcement. This groundbreaking book is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the full implications of race and policing in America, illuminating a history that is as enlightening as it is urgent. Beliso-De Jesús’s critical work stands as a beacon in the ongoing discussion on police violence, demanding attention, reflection, and, ultimately, action.” -- Elizabeth Hinton, author of * America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s *

Author Information

Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús is Olden Street Professor of American Studies at Princeton University and author of Electric Santería: Racial and Sexual Assemblages of Transnational Religion.

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