American culture typically assumes that preventing illness and disease is an inherently good act. However, historically illness prevention has worked hand in hand with movements like the American eugenics movement and medical racism in ways that have subjected disabled people, people of color, and poor people to isolation, incarceration, medical experimentation, and nonconsensual and nontherapeutic medical treatment. Also, many of the reasons American culture views prevention as an inherent good is because of larger glorifications of the idea of curing illness and disease.

The Tricky Politics of Illness Prevention

The NBWHP paired the material and social support they gave to Black women living with HIV/AIDs, with education and political action around preventing HIV/AIDS. They did a careful balancing act, which is deeply an enactment of Black politics, between viewing HIV/AIDS as an epidemic and political concern while refusing to stigmatize Black people with HIV/AIDS.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The NBWHP continued to apply its overarching political, cultural, and holistic approach to health and wellness to how they understand the AIDS epidemic among Black women. Similar to previous work the NBWHP's approach was situated at the intersection of race and gender. The organization's work around HIV/AIDS included coverage of the HIV/AIDs epidemic, including a special issue dedicated to the epidemic, in the NWBHP's magazine Vital Signs, and a chapter on HIV/AIDS in the health self-help book Body and Soul: The Black Women's Guide to Physical Health and Emotional Wellbeing. The organization also had panels, speeches, and workshops at NBWHP annual conferences, a special conference on HIV/AIDS, and the NBWHP developed culturally specific HIV/AIDS programming.

How the NBWHP Actions During the HIV/AIDS Epidemic Are Reminiscent of Previous Work

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

Black Disability Politics

According to an NBWHP report, between July 1988 and January 1989, 2,410 individuals participated in NBWHP AIDS programming including presentations, workshops and self-help groups. 73.8 percent of those who participated were Black women.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After