- Byers experience of racism in the army and links to suicidal ideation
- Byers' race being represented as a key factor in his treatment at the hospital
- Byers' mental disability being framed as produced and sustained from racist and ableist social structures.

How the Article Emphasizes Race and Racism

"V.A. Hospital Pays For Human Guinea Pigs: Performs Psychosurgery on Black Oakland Youth," was the third and final article published in the Black Panther about Lou Byers, published a week after "Mother of Psychosurgery Victim Appeal for Community Help."

"V.A. Hospital Pays For Human Guinea Pigs: Performs Psychosurgery on Black Oakland Youth"

Schalk notes that this rhetoric playing on ableist fears by activists of disablement, incapacitation, and loss of autonomy are magnified with the  use of the term vegetable to describe Byers. Schalk also notes this usage is directly in contrasts to the Black Panthers coalition work with disability organizations.

Example: Use of Vegetable in Reference to Byers

Two articles on Lou Byers show the enactment of Schalk's third approach by the Black panther by  stating "the Black Panther Party's Free Legal Aid and Educational Program is looking into various resources so as to assist Lou Byers" and the final article states that Byers' mother with the aid of the Black Panther Party is seeing legal and medical help for her son. 

The Black Panther's Application of Schalk's Third Tactic

The appeal noted in the article title is that the probation department is threatening to revoke his parole.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

Wallace said that Byers at many points threatened to kill himself and expressed to her that he was suicidal due to racism he experienced from the hospital staff.

Effects of Hospital Mistreatment on Byers

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

Black Disability Politics

Byers Legal Troubles and Parole

The Article connects the advertisement run in the San Francisco Chronicle and the story of Lou Byers by noting that both raised alarm about practices at the V.A. hospitals.

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