The NBWHP's approach to HIV/AIDS from a holistic, culturally informed understanding of health and wellness that centers Black women was not just emblematic of the NBWHP's work around HIV/AIDS the National Black Women's Health Project took similar approaches - in particular the balance between prevention and education of non-disabled community members and resources for disabled people - to mental health, depression and suicide. All of this work is a clear enactment of Black Disability Politics.

How HIV/AIDS Serves as a Case Study for the NBWHP

As previously mentioned, HIV/AIDS was originally seen as a disease that solely affected white gay men. This misinformation often led to Black women falsely believing they couldn't contract HIV/AIDS and thus didn't need to work to prevent it. The NBWHP worked to inform Black women that anyone can contract HIV.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The NBWHP built cultural competency into their prevention work by:
- debunking myths around HIV/AIDS and the Black community
- understanding and building programming around the unique societal positioning and concerns of Black women
- physically placing programming in places Black women felt safe
connecting HIV/AIDS to the larger issues central to Black communities
- destigmatizing HIV/AIDS for HIV-negative Black people

How the NBWHP Built Cultural Competency into Their Prevention Work

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

Black Disability Politics

How the NBWHP Worked to Debunk Myths Around HIV/AIDS

The NBWHP made safer-sex education materials that addressed some of the concerns and barriers to safer sex for Black women in the 1980s and 1990s. One example of these barriers was the silence in Black communities around the intercommunal sexual and domestic violence faced by Black women.

How the NBWHP Aimed HIV/AIDS Prevention Programming at Black Women

The NBWHP intentionally hosted workshops and self-help groups in community centers and neighborhood churches where Black women were more likely to feel safe talking about their sex lives. The NBWHP also recognized the importance of hair stylists and beauticians as a community center for Black women and organized educational workshops about HIV/AIDS for Black beauticians.

Placing HIV/AIDS Prevention Programming Where Black Women Feel Safe

In her vital signs piece, Dazon Dixion typified the NBWHP's approach to HIV/AIDS by stating that AIDS "has magnified all the social, political, health and economic problems that have plagued" Black people. The NWBHP understood that in many Black communities that AIDS was part of a larger picture of community survival rather than AIDS being an isolated priority the way it was for many white AIDS activist organizations. The NBWHP named that medical racism, healthcare access, reproductive justice, and the prison industrial complex are political issues in Black communities that intersect with the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The NBWHP's Work Connecting HIV/AIDS to Political Issues Central to Black Communities

The NBWHP worked to reduce the blame and normative moral claims made around HIV/AIDS. A lot of this work included addressing homophobia and views on drug use and sex work in the Black community. The NBWHP promoted a politicized understanding of HIV that did not blame people for their own disease and disablement. Destigmatization work served as the bridge between the NBWHP's prevention work and support work for individuals with HIV/AIDS.

The NBWHP's Work to Destigmatize HIV/AIDS

The NBWHP in addition to working to prevent HIV/AIDS also worked to actively support Black Women with HIV/AIDS this support took a few different forms:
- Centering the voices of Black women with HIV/AIDS
- Hosting the conference "From Cries and Whispers: Black Women Talking About AIDS"
- Support Groups

Learn Before

Related

Learn After