Race, blood, disease and citizenship: the making of the Haitian-Americans and the Haitian immigrants into ‘the others’ during the 1980s–1990s AIDS crisis

Abstract

This article traces the ‘otherisation’ of US denizens of Haitian descent during the 1980s and 1990s, subsequent to their incorporation into the ‘4-H club’ as ‘Haitians’, regardless of their citizenship. It argues that by collapsing the categories Haitian-Americans and Haitian immigrants into ‘Haitians’ and by accusing this collectivity of bringing HIV/AIDS to the United States, the US medical and political leadership and sectors of the media nullified the Haitian-Americans’ US citizenship and maligned both groups’ identity, promoting their alienation from the larger US population. It concludes with a plea to reframe the concept of citizenship and reassess the normative notion of belonging to the US nation-state.

Keywords:

• citizenship
• nationality
• immigrants
• race
• blood
• ‘otherisation’

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Georges E. Fouron

GEORGES E. FOURON is Professor in the Africana Studies Department at Stony Brook University.