Across the twenty two articles published in the Black Panther about psychosurgery between June 1971 and October 1977 the term vegetable is used seven times. Four of these seven times refer to Lou Byers. Two of these four times were in the first article published by Lou Byers which was a reprint of an article published in the Black Thought so not written by Black Panther authors.

Use of the Term Vegetable in the Black Panther

- Using disability as a symbol that oppressive violence has occurred
- Examples: Sierra Club, The Black Panther
- Alternatives

How Social Justice Movements Use Disability

Schalk notes that while the BPP did a lot of good work to push for the end of psychosurgery they did fail to avoid ableist language and sentiments. Schalk examines this through the lens of the use of the term "vegetable" in the Black Panther and alternative rhetorical approaches the Black Panther could've taken.

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- Centering of Disabled People of Color
- Critical Stance Towards Medical Professionals
- Not Distancing Blackness from Disability
- Critique of the Black Panther's Coverage

Approaches taken by the Black Panther in Psychosurgery Articles

The work of the Black Panther in fighting psychosurgery shows that their intersectional, race-centered activism was necessarily coalitional and required alliances between nondisabled Black people, non-Black disabled people, and Black disabled people. These alliances were forged by the BPP highlighting the connection between prisons and mental health facilities in a way that did not minimize either experience. 

The BPP's work is another example of how Black Disability Politics can be enacted without the need for an explicit mention of disability.

The Black Panther's Activism Around Psychosurgery as Black Disability Politics

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

Black Disability Politics

In their articles the Black Panther Party encouraged a critical stance towards medical professionals, especially the idea that medical professionals hold expertise about the lived experience of those diagnosed with psychiatric disabilities. 

Critical Stance Towards Medical Professionals

In the articles the Black Panther does not argue that all psychosurgery or pharmaceutical treatments were wrong, and the Black Panthers did not express a belief that Black people wouldn't be disabled and therefore wouldn't need them. Rather specific care was given to the idea the psychosurgery and forced pharmaceutical treatments were harmful because they were being done primarily in coercive and nonconsensual ways among individuals held by the state through imprisonment, mental incarceration, or veteran status.

The BPP did not discount the realness of psychiatric disability and the desire for psychiatric care.

Not Distancing Blackness from Disability

In their articles about psychosurgery the Black Panther centered the voices and harm experienced by Black disabled people and how these experiences were part of the oppression faced by Black disabled people at the hands of the medical, prison, and military industrial complexes.

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