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Abstract
Thirty years ago black populations were disproportionately HIV + and far more likely to die of AIDS than other populations. Yet and still black elected officials, civil rights organizations, and black institutions ignored the problem. Now, at least in major metropolitan areas, circumstances appear to have changed—not only do civil rights organizations, black elected officials, and a range of black institutions take HIV and AIDS seriously, it is not uncommon to find promotional materials urging black populations to get tested and to practice safe sex. What has changed since that moment? In this paper I argue that the increased visibility attending HIV/AIDS in black communities has come with increased responsibilizing of blacks with HIV/AIDS or at risk of contracting HIV.
Notes
1 Cathy J. Cohen, The Boundaries of Blackness : Aids and the Breakdown of Black Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).
2 Ibid., p. 3.
3 Linda Villarosa, “America’s Hidden Hiv Epidemic,” The New York Times, 2017.
4 Michael C. Dawson, Behind the Mule : Race and Class in African-American Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994).
5 Cohen, The Boundaries of Blackness.
6 Marlon M. Bailey, “Performance as Intravention: Ballroom Culture and the Politics of Hiv/Aids in Detroit,” Souls 11, no. 3 (2009); Michele Tracy Berger, Workable Sisterhood : The Political Journey of Stigmatized Women with Hiv/Aids (Princeton, NJ; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004); Rhonda Y. Williams, The Politics of Public Housing : Black Women's Struggles against Urban Inequality, Transgressing Boundaries. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
7 Dara Z. Strolovitch, Affirmative Advocacy : Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).
8 Julia Sheron Jordan-Zachery, Shadow Bodies : Black Women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2017).
9 Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Remaking a Life : How Women Living with Hiv/Aids Confront Inequality (Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2019).
10 Shayna D. Cunningham et al., “The Role of Structure Versus Individual Agency in Churches’ Responses to Hiv/Aids: A Case Study of Baltimore City Churches,” Journal of religion and health 50, no. 2 (2011); Angelique C. Harris, “Sex, Stigma, and the Holy Ghost: The Black Church and the Construction of Aids in New York City,” Journal of African American Studies 14, no. 1 (2010); Gregory M. Herek and John P. Capitanio, “Aids-Related Stigma and Attitudes Towards Injecting Drug Users among Black and White Americans,” The American Behavioral Scientist 42, no. 7 (1999).
11 Rucker Johnson and Steven Raphael, “The Effects of Male Incarceration Dynamics on Aids Infection Rates among African-American Women and Men,” Journal of Law and Economics 52, no. 2 (2009); Lester Spence and Rena Boss-Victoria, “Aids, Context, and Black Politics,” National Political Science Review 11 (2007); Rodrick Wallace et al., “The Hierarchical Diffusion of Aids and Violent Crime among Us Metropolitan Regions: Inner-City Decay, Stochastic Resonance and Reversal of the Mortality Transition,” Social Science & Medicine 44, no. 7 (1997); Rodrick Wallace and Deborah Wallace, “Inner-City Disease and the Public Health of the Suburbs: The Sociogeographic Dispersion of Point-Source Infection,” Environment and Planning A 25, no. 12 (1993); “Us Apartheid and the Spread of Aids to the Suburbs: A Multi-City Analysis of the Political Economy of Spatial Epidemic Threshold,” Social Science & Medicine 41, no. 3 (1995); Rodrick Wallace et al., “The Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Aids and Tb in the New York Metropolitan Region from a Sociogeographic Perspective: Understanding the Linkages of Central City and Suburbs,” Environment and Planning A 27, no. 7 (1995).
12 Lester K. Spence, “Episodic Frames, HIV/AIDS, and African American Public Opinion,” Political Research Quarterly 63, no. 2 (2010).
13 Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-Hop and Black Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011); “The Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics,” Souls 14, no. 3-4 (2012); Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics (New York City: Punctum, 2015).
14 Facundo Alvaredo et al., “The Top 1 Percent in International and Historical Perspective,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 27, no. 3 (2013). Thomas Piketty and Arthur Goldhammer, Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014).
15 Although there are a variety of reasons why a host of countries embraced the neoliberal turn, the United States in particular made the turn partially through racial politics. As racial minorities attained more political, social, and economic power, and began to use that power to make demands on the state, the progressive arm of the state begins to be assailed in ways that cause racial majorities to weigh in against policies that, while disproportionately aiding racial minorities aid them too. As black women become associated with welfare, support for welfare policies drop, Mimi Abramovitz, “Welfare Reform in the United States: Gender, Race and Class Matter,” Critical Social Policy 26, no. 2 (2006); Rosalee A. Clawson and Rayuka Trice, “Poverty as We Know It,” Public Opinion Quarterly 64, no. 1 (2000); Martin Gilens, Why Americans Hate Welfare : Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999); Ange-Marie Hancock, The Politics of Disgust : The Public Identity of the Welfare Queen (New York: New York University Press, 2004); Donald R. Kinder and Nicholas Winter, “Exploring the Racial Divide: Blacks, Whites, and Opinion on National Policy,” American Journal of Political Science 45, no. 2 (2001); Robert C. Lieberman, Shifting the Color Line : Race and the American Welfare State (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998); Gwendolyn Mink, Welfare's End (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998); Joe Soss, Richard C. Fording, and Sanford F. Schram, Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011). As whites believe blacks garner the lion’s share of taxes, the anti-tax movement begins, Brian An, Morris Levy, and Rodney Hero, “It’s Not Just Welfare: Racial Inequality and the Local Provision of Public Goods in the United States,” Urban Affairs Review (2018); Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary D. Edsall, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics (New York: Norton, 1991); David O. Sears and Jack Citrin, Tax Revolt: Something for Nothing in California (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985). As black men become more associated with crime support for progressive crime policy drops Travis L. Dixon, Cristina L. Azocar, and Michael Casas, “The Portrayal of Race and Crime on Television Network News,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 47, no. 4 (2003); Franklin D. Gilliam Jr. and Shanto Iyengar, “Prime Suspects: The Influence of Local Television News on the Viewing Public,” American Journal of Political Science 44, no. 3 (2000); Jon Hurwitz and Mark Peffley, “Public Perceptions of Race and Crime: The Role of Racial Stereotypes,” ibid.41, no. 2 (1997); Lisa Lynn Miller, The Perils of Federalism : Race, Poverty, and the Politics of Crime Control (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008); Mark Peffley, Jon Hurwitz, and Paul M. Sniderman, “Racial Stereotypes and Whites' Political Views of Blacks in the Context of Welfare and Crime,” American Journal of Political Science 41, no. 1 (1997). Rolling back support also translates into rolling out support for far more regressive tax, welfare, crime, and immigration policies. These policies are usually attached to market logic.
16 Jason Hackworth, The Neoliberal City: Governance, Ideology, and Development in American Urbanism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007); Jamie Peck and Adam Tickell, “Neoliberalizing Space,” Antipode 34, no. 3 (2002); Timothy P. R. Weaver, Blazing the Neoliberal Trail: Urban Political Development in the United States and the United Kingdom (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016).
17 Spence, Knocking the Hustle.
18 Nike Ayo, “Understanding Health Promotion in a Neoliberal Climate and the Making of Health Conscious Citizens,” Critical public health 22, no. 1 (2012); Eric D Carter, “Making the Blue Zones: Neoliberalism and Nudges in Public Health Promotion,” Social Science & Medicine 133 (2015); Melinda Cooper, Family Values : Between Neoliberalism and the New Social Conservatism, Near Futures (New York: Zone Books, 2017); Robert Crawford, “The Boundaries of the Self and the Unhealthy Other: Reflections on Health, Culture and Aids,” Social Science & Medicine 38, no. 10 (1994); Sue McGregor, “Neoliberalism and Health Care,” International Journal of Consumer Studies 25, no. 2 (2001); Jay Cee Whitehead, “Risk, Marriage, and Neoliberal Governance: Learning from the Unwillingly Excluded,” The Sociological Quarterly 52, no. 2 (2011).
19 Pat O'Malley, “Risk and Responsibility,” in Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-Liberalism and Rationalities of Government, ed. Andrew Barry, Thomas Osborne, and Nikolas S. Rose (London: UCL Press, 1996).
20 A subset of actors then connect knowledge to power and risk. Tia Mowry emphasizes the connection between knowledge and power (“when you educate yourself about these astounding statistics, I feel that you become powerful”), Kyle Massey emphasizes the seeming permanence of the crisis (“it’s really really crunchtime, where people should really start becoming knowledgeable about the situation, because you know it’s not going anywhere”). Jesse Williams notes how HIV/AIDS affects everyone, rather than specific subpopulations (“It happens to, you know, the folks on the court, it happens to people in our neighborhood, it’s not, it’s not discriminating”) Greater Than AIDS, “Greater Than Aids Know: Knowledge Is Greater Than Ignorance,” Greater Than AIDS, https://vimeo.com/12991711.
21 Comedian Steve Harvey begins the video via voiceover (“Listen to me. Condoms are very effective in stopping this disease. But you have to use them.”). Two black actresses (Naturi Naughton, and Gina Rivera) then talk about condom usage. Naughton offers an education lesson, speaking to the camera “Tell them, look at this [expressively pointing to herself]. Do you want this? Uh Uh. Not without a condom” “Greater Than Aids Protect: Safe Is Greater Than Sorry,” Greater Than AIDS, https://vimeo.com/12991639. Rivera uses a different tone, but her message is similar: “It’s really important that we take heed and use a condom. Protect ourselves.” The young black man from the first video then emphasizes the section’s main message—“being safe is greater than being sorry”—followed by the beatboxer transforming the central hook from Ice Cube’s “Check yo self” (“check yourself before you wreck yourself”) into a pro-condom hook (“so I check myself, and protect myself”) ibid. The video then shifts to Jesse Milan, former Board Chairman of the Black AIDS Institute. Milan addresses the issue of intimacy between black gay men. As he speaks (“I know you’re going out looking for a new boyfriend I hope you’re going to be safe”) we see images of two black men holding one another ibid. The video deals more with the ethics of care than any other, with care being defined as the care between two loving presumably monogamous individuals.
22 Greater Than AIDS, “Greater Than Aids Get Tested: Knowing Is Greater Than Doubt,” Greater Than AIDS, https://vimeo.com/12991580.
23 “Deciding Moment: Aziz,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCaQVmRVqDc&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0&index=9.
24 “Deciding Moment: Andre,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqSeSd2SFqw&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0&index=15.
25 “Deciding Moment: Marvelyn,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqSeSd2SFqw&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0&index=16&t=0s.
26 “Deciding Moment: Chauncey,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyD-LJhcZiQ&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0&index=12.
27 “Deciding Moment: Marteniz,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgDhfxYuhtQ&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0&index=7.
28 “Deciding Moment: Yvonne,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g9_gFPB7Ks&index=10&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0.
29 “Deciding Moment: Dj,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmhUaIoryLw&index=14&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0.
30 “Deciding Moment: Freda,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huOnqvuZv3I&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0&index=6.
31 “Deciding Moment: Lolisa,” Greater Than AIDS, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHMAG6zhSPQ&index=11&list=PLMg9scXawOhQGb0lscRjsbHjPEfzd0IO0.
32 Aihwa Ong, Neoliberalism as Exception : Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006); Spence, “The Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics.”