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.
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.