Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
Dive Into the Archive: leftofblack.org
At the dawn of the 1980's, the term "excited delirium" was created to medically explain why so many Black men and women died at the hands of law enforcement. The phony diagnosis supposed that the combination of drug use and intense sexual activity put people in a state of confusion and disorientation, leading to behavioral issues. If police were called, the delirium would lead to heart failure, thus causing death, which diverted attention away from instances of police brutality. In her new book, Dr. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, who is the Olden Street Professor of American Studies at Princeton University, examines this fabricated medical diagnosis and its use to justify and erase police violence against Black and Brown communities. She even goes a step further to correlate "excited delirium" to the criminalization of Afro-Latiné religions. She joins host and show creator Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss her book, "Excited Delirium: Race, Police Violence, and the Invention of a Disease," published by @DukePress.
Learn more about Dr. Beliso-De Jesús here: https://effroncenter.princeton.edu/people/aisha-beliso-de-jesus
And get her book here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/excited-delirium
"Left of Black," Duke University's intrepid web series on Black Studies and the Black Arts, begins its milestone fifteenth season! "Left of Black" is the 2024 Gold Davey Award-winning and 2023 Webby Award-nominated series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars, along with musicians and artists, created and hosted by the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal.
Directed, produced & edited by Eric Barstow, M.F.A.
Assistant editor Jakiah Glass
Dive Into the Archive: leftofblack.org
At the dawn of the 1980's, the term "excited delirium" was created to medically explain why so many Black men and women died at the hands of law enforcement. The phony diagnosis supposed that the combination of drug use and intense sexual activity put people in a state of confusion and disorientation, leading to behavioral issues. If police were called, the delirium would lead to heart failure, thus causing death, which diverted attention away from instances of police brutality. In her new book, Dr. Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, who is the Olden Street Professor of American Studies at Princeton University, examines this fabricated medical diagnosis and its use to justify and erase police violence against Black and Brown communities. She even goes a step further to correlate "excited delirium" to the criminalization of Afro-Latiné religions. She joins host and show creator Dr. Mark Anthony Neal to discuss her book, "Excited Delirium: Race, Police Violence, and the Invention of a Disease," published by @DukePress.
Learn more about Dr. Beliso-De Jesús here: https://effroncenter.princeton.edu/people/aisha-beliso-de-jesus
And get her book here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/excited-delirium
"Left of Black," Duke University's intrepid web series on Black Studies and the Black Arts, begins its milestone fifteenth season! "Left of Black" is the 2024 Gold Davey Award-winning and 2023 Webby Award-nominated series featuring interviews with Black Studies scholars, along with musicians and artists, created and hosted by the James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African and African American Studies, Dr. Mark Anthony Neal.
Directed, produced & edited by Eric Barstow, M.F.A.
Assistant editor Jakiah Glass
