The lead singer of the Four Tops said a Detroit-area hospital restrained him and ordered a psychological exam after refusing to believe that he was part of the Motown music group.
Alexander Morris, who is Black, filed a lawsuit Monday against Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital in Warren, alleging racial discrimination and other misconduct during an April 2023 visit for chest pain and breathing problems.
Hospital staff “wrongfully assumed he was mentally ill when he revealed his identity as a celebrity figure,” the lawsuit says.
Morris is not an original member, but he joined the group in 2019.
The lawsuit says a nurse finally believed Morris was in the Four Tops and the psychological exam was canceled.
The hospital offered a $25 gift card as an apology, but Morris refused to accept it, the lawsuit says.
Now do all of Metallica’s bassists since Cliff Burton.
Now that my throwaway joke is out of the way, it’s interesting to me how much judgment and hate there is for those with mental health issues that people are positively angry that they might be confused for someone with (or maybe even actually have) mental health issues.
Devil’s Advocate incoming:
Let’s be real, the members of the Four Tops are fucking old. It could literally be fucking dementia. This guy could genuinely have mental health problems.
Why is he so scared of being admitted to a mental health facility? Because deep down everyone knows exactly how fucked up those facilities are and exactly how much agency they take away from you when you’re in one.
The reason the fear of getting put in one is so visceral is because everyone knows it becomes really difficult to get back out when you’re in an endless quest to prove your own sanity and everyone thinks you’re insane (and maybe you really are!). The reality is that the systems and how we handle mental illness need to change as well as the judgments of the people who need help. Like, maybe taking away all their personal agency isn’t the answer.
People won’t seek out help if the response is to sue over the very idea that maybe we might actually need help. He’s fucking ancient, he very well could be experiencing dementia, and that could have been an honest fucking mistake on the part of the hospital staff because he’s literally an old man exhibiting dementia symptoms but because of who he is instead we’re running with the story that his mind is a steel trap and never wavers? Fuck me, get out of here with that nonsense. Old people get old and their minds get frail, its totally fucking possible. (I can’t find his exact age, but his personal Facebook shows he’s got a full head of gray hair and miles of wrinkles. Black don’t crack so this guy is fucking old.)
No, it would be way healthier if people could be open to the possibility (especially in advanced old age!) that maybe, just maybe, they could be susceptible to mental health issues instead of freaking out and fucking suing people.
Two things can be true at once: He can be a member of the Four Tops and he also could have been exhibiting dementia symptoms in front of mental health professionals.
No, he’s not. He was born in 1971 making him 52 or 53 now (depending on his birthdate).
He joined the Four Tops in 2019.
That was probably the core of the problem right there… Medical professionals going “No way is this guy old enough to be in the Four Tops…” Without doing the due dilligence to realize they’ve been rotating members since 1997.
The fact that the original four members ran from 1953 to 1997 is fucking amazing! One of the original four is STILL in the group at 88.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Fakir
https://www.bcbs.com/the-health-of-america/reports/early-onset-dementia-alzheimers-disease-affecting-younger-american-adults
My post is literally addressing the “it can’t happen to me” canard. People can and really do have mental health issues. It can literally happen to anyone. I understand he joined in 2019, I’ve been to his Facebook page. I appreciate you adding his birth year, because I was unable to find it.
I’m pointing out that angry responses to the idea that maybe you have a mental health issue speaks to how bad our current mental health services are, why they need change, and why we need to get rid of the stigma against mental illness.
Anyway, as you can see, Early Onset Dementia (along with so many other diseases, especially autoimmune) is on the rise in youth. Pretending it’s not a possibility at all and getting angry at the possibility because you view people with mental health issues as “lesser” somehow is a problem, because it can happen to anyone. Pretending it won’t and trying to strongman your way out of mental health issues literally does not work.
Also, as a black man, he historically has a reason to distrust American medical and pharmaceutical industries. I’m sure he’s likely aware of such gross examples as the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments. However, choosing not to trust medical science entirely is also a losing game, so we have to fix that trust in people by building better systems.
Once again, this speaks to a system that needs to be fixed, not one that needs to have people antagonizing others over the idea that maybe they need mental health help. The system for mental health help in the USA is currently broken and hurts people and takes away their human agency. It can help a lot of people, but it hurts and fails a lot of others. There’s a reason why people are scared of it.
I’m not saying anything is wrong with him, but I am saying his angry response to the idea that something might be speaks volumes about the issue.
“He’s fucking ancient, so he probably has dementia.”
“No, he’s actually middle-aged.”
“Ah, well, nevertheless…”
Not disputing what you’re saying about the horrors of the mental health system in this country, but learn to take the L.
He’ll have a hard time gaslighting if he doesn’t edit his post before doing it. Lol.
Maybe he has dementia?
I dont think their point changed from post-to-post, it seemed coherent to me. What do you mean by gaslighting here?
His initial argument was that the guy now suing was old as dirt, so it was understanding that they thought he may have dementia or a mental issue.
But he never bothered to read the article when he made that huge post. The patient wasn’t an original member. He joined in 2019 and was only like 52 years old.
At that point, in his next post, he started acting like that wasn’t his big argument.
In my opinion, that wasnt the point they were making, but everyone’s open to their own interpretation I suppose.
That’s an awful lot of talk for someone who didn’t seem to read/comprehend the article.
“Morris is not an original member, but he joined the group in 2019.”
Accusing people who disagree with you of mental illness is fucked, and that’s what these doctors did. False beliefs, or beliefs the doctors think are false, aren’t a mental illness. Had an actual psychologist been in the room, they would have explained that a mental illness necessarily causes harm or distress to the patient. If someone believes he’s a famous singer, and there’s no other sign of trouble, then doctors have no business with the man except to solve the problem he came to have treated.