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In the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, social media begins with a renewed urgency to witness the violence by police happening to people of color (POC) and to examine public policy. How effective the conversation is has yet to be fully realized-- There are several groups that need assistance, but no group more than mentally ill POC. Mentally ill POC , often through no fault of their own, face disproportionate rates of violence from police and from themselves. While there is much policy change to be done, does the public conversation reflect the seriousness of the problem?  Through the analysis of twitter posts from #MentalHealthStigma,#PoliceReform #WalterWallaceJr, and , it seems much of the public conversation does take the problem of stigma seriously, but some trends help the narrative of change more than others.

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Here, the use of “#PoliceReform” is an ending message and a part of a call to action: “That must change” (ACLU of Virginia). The statement before the hashtag leaves no argument with the modal “must” and this tone continues into the order behind the hashtag, for “police reform.” This gives ACLU of Virginia’s message a tone of authority that demands change from police.  Overall, the change the author explicitly wants is more training while implicitly, through sharing Sanchez’s death, the author is saying that not enough training loses lives.

ACLU of Virginia’s tweet is about the death of a deaf POC but the author includes mental illness as a disability that should be considered by police when addressing someone noncompliant. This is a logos reflection of mental illness’s category of disability. This logos also colloquially legitimizes mental illness as being a barrier of communication at the same level as deafness.

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T Marie uses pathos and an innocent-seeming “wish” as expressed through a video to show how Walter Wallace Jr. was not treated with compassion by police officers. Throughout the piece, T Marie uses a broken-heart emoji to express vulnerability and distress toward the loss of Wallace . This makes the speaker’s mourning seem relatable and imbues Wallace with humanity. Humanizing Walter Wallace Jr. is a trend of the overall story trend to show how Walter Wallace Jr., and by extension other killed POC, are people worthy of justice. The video that T Marie shares contains someone who is white, implying that the reason why Wallace died was because he is black. While using the wistful tone, T Marie also uses “smh” or “shakes my head” to show their disgust for the overall situation. While this tweet and video’s main goal is to garner support for justice for Wallace, it is also effective for showing officers what other methods, even though violent, were possible for Wallace.

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This tweet remarks on how someone changed their tone about a mentally ill person after being called out for their lack of sympathy. They relate how a “Guy stops me further on & remarks how bad it is that the guy is swearing etc.”. The use of “guy” as a descriptor is important because “guy” is used for both the mentally ill person and the unsympathetic bystander. This casually assimilates both to the role of men and makes them equal, without stigma, in the story. The tweeter also relates how the bystander thinks in dichotomies of good and “bad” and that visible mental illness is something that is “bad”. This vilifying of mental illness is part of a punitive mindset in the Justice system and is faced by those who struggle outwardly with their mental symptoms.

This author also gives a lot of authority and respect to the police officer in the story because of perceived positive behavior, (i.e. talking to the mentally ill person). The “Police Officer” is markedly capitalized while the rest of the capitalization are markers for sentence beginnings. This places the police officer at a higher level of formality than the “guys” and marks a higher level of authority than the other two members of the story. Also, while the onlooker focuses on the “bad” the author notices how “Great” the officer is for talking to the sick person. This means the author respects police officers and perceives them as handling the problem of a distressed mentally ill man. Notably, this is an opinion and story-based format of a tweet that ends with a moral. While this worthy of argument, the author ends their tweet with “#mentalhealthstigma” “#don’tstare !!” and emphasizes with exclamations how lack of judgment and lack of public attention is what the mentally ill person needs

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The Black and Brown Coalition of PHL, which is most likely a twitter written by POC, uses ownership of a narrative and fear of injustice or erasure to excite their audience towards change.  As the author says, “This is how our narrative for justice gets erased #WalterWallaceJr”. Here, “#WalterWallace Jr” is with a tone of defiance-- i.e. that he will be remembered and, likewise, how POC as a whole will be given justice and remembered. The author here, and much of the social media story, seems to care that the Walter Wallace Jr. narrative is told in its entirety so that the loss can be mourned and avenged. Perhaps, this care and responsibility for the narrative of justice is why the social media account that The Black and Brown Coalition of PHL references seems to be another POC as evidenced by having “that nigga” as part of their name. In any case, The Black and Brown Coalition of PHL uses “our” to describe the narrative of justice, creating an implicit “them” who oppose the narrative of justice. Since the thread that the author references tells us how the police were sent instead of an ambulance, the “them” is probably the police or the US establishment in general. Within the social media story, this distrust of the establishment as a trend is another motivator for policy change.

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Through using a hashtag whose goal is to point out stigma and normalize conversation about mental health, these individuals look for a sympathetic online audience as they address the problems around mental illness. For example,Caz highlights how dangerous it is to be mentally ill and lack societal support: “Helping people before they need a hospital bed may mean they never need a hospital bed…” Notably, Caz doesn’t specify what mental illness can lead to a hospital bed, but this allows the audience to insert whatever mental illness they sympathize or empathize with the most. The “hospital bed...” euphemism also leaves to the imagination how dangerous a mental illness can be to someone’s life, which opens the hashtag conversation to how stigma can cost lives. This tweet reflects on how mental illness stigma can directly affect how dangerous the world will be.

While looking for a supportive audience, Caz also seems worried that they won't find one. There are repeated disclaimers in their post, both at the end of the writing and the heading of the tweet. The heading describes how “sleep-deprived” the author as a defense mechanism of sorts - Afterall, if the author was tired when they wrote it, then they are less responsible if the content is partially developed. However, the piece is well written; it is grammatical and spell-checked. It seems more likely that the author could be saying that their “sleep-deprived” brain is allowing them to be unfiltered. This establishes both trust from the reader because of the bluntness of their opinion but gives the writer a way out. There is also a repetitious label of this piece as “opinion” even though it is not needed. While this may be a response to online negativity in general, it could be a reflection of the author’s worry about tweeters taking issue with the evaluation of public services. This way, if the public takes the author’s opinion in a poor light, then the author can point to both of their disclaimers as well as free speech (i.e. "this was just my opinion...") for a way out.

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Walter Wallace Jr.’s social media story is a cry for justice; this includes justice for his death by police officers but also calls for better treatment for mentally ill suspects. Bishop Talbert Swan utilizes both a video of Walter Wallace Jr. and a video of a white counterpart to highlight the racial unfair treatment of police to people of color. The title of the video is a reference to “A Tale of Two Cities” and this creates a title that feels familiar to the audience. This creates a title that is easy to remember and easy to reference, thus easy to share and promote protest. Then, the video’s audio is mostly the yelling and the contrast of many shots fired at Wallace Walter Jr. but no shots fired for the white counterpart. This, and an exclamation of disgust from a bystander, create an overall shocking experience that opens the question of why Walter Wallace Jr. was treated with deadly force but not his white counterpart. With a pithy title to support it, “A Tale of Two Americas” creates a dichotomy between POC and white Americans to show how POC are treated more brutally for the same offense.

Bishop Talbert Swan displays his message of inequality through writing as well as video. They note how, “[Walter Wallace Jr.] allegedly had a knife”. The use of “allegedly” plants doubt and suggests that there is little evidence. In the video, the white counterpart definitely has a knife and waves it at police officers while Wallace’s weapon is not clearly shown. This hazy perspective of Walter Wallace Jr.’s crime and obviousness of the white counterpart’s attack influences the audience to interpret Wallace’s death as worthy of sympathy.

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In “#PoliceReform”, every tweet addresses a societal need but some use pathos, logos, and ethos. Markedly, the hashtag “#PoliceReform” begins the tweet. This effectively informs of a highlight of the news article instead of the usual call to action. The news article and titling of the piece is meant to excite the reader about the newest change in police policy for the mentally ill. Ayesha K Mustafaa also talks about how the need for education in mental health is “GROWING”. Through the growth of capital letters, Mustafaa is using pathos to emphasize the large need for mental health assistance in the US. Mustafaa also uses ethos in repeating the article title, since it labels police officers as not “experts” for “Mental health 911 calls”. Through the challenge of the status quo in having “experts” separate from police answering 911 calls, it takes mental health out of the realm of punishment associated with police officers. Instead, Mustafaa celebrates that separate experts will assist in emergencies for those who struggle with mental health. Mustafaa's tweet is an excellent example of celebrating change.

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Why does the mental illness need more help than ever before?

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Why does the mental illness need more help than ever before?

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How does systemic racism affect the mental health of American POC?

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How does systemic racism affect the mental health of American POC?

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Are there any solutions in police services for this problem?

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Are there any solutions in police services for this problem?

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For Black Lives Matter to be an effective social media movement for change, there must be compassion for all black lives as well as attention called to corrupt policies. In #WalterWallaceJr, there was a narrative from black authors for accountability for the police's treatment of someone who is mentally ill. Wallace isn’t seen as a crazy person but instead as someone with a disability worthy of sympathy and justice. #MentalHealthStigma overall isn’t a strong fight against stigma because of the flood of motivational posts, but even the motivational posts peels away some of the taboo of mental illness. Perhaps because of the gradual and supportive nature of the hashtag, that was why there were still poignant opinions shared underneath #MentalHealthStigma. As for #Policereform, there surprisingly little reform being called for for mentally ill POC. There was a flood for general changes but specific policies like CIT programs and mental health programs are celebrated but not called for in the posts reviewed here.

Unfortunately, the boundaries of the data are how social media is not equally available to the population, like those who are homeless or incarcerated who may experience the full corruption of the mental health system. Also, social media is not a place without its own stigmas and bullies, so many of those who suffer from severe mental illness  (e.g. psychotic breaks or depression) may not feel comfortable informing the world of their condition and viewpoints. Perhaps more research needs to be done on more specific mental illness hashtags (e.g. ones for depression, sociopathy, or those who suffer from psychosis) to see if these communities are robust and if they add to the voices for change.