AEGiS-APPJ: How AIDS Became a Race Issue: The Case of Alabama

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

How AIDS Became a Race Issue: The Case of Alabama

AIDS & Public Policy Journal 17, no. 2 (Summer 2002) 59-74
Bronwen Lichtenstein

HIV/AIDS in the United States was originally conceptualized as a "White man's disease." This perception initially shaped responses to HIV/AIDS on a national and regional basis. It is now recognized that minorities are disproportionately at risk of HIV/AIDS, but policy makers have been slow to address this issue, and problems remain in formulating HIV-prevention strategies for minority populations. The present article examines how AIDS became a "race issue" in Alabama by analyzing state policies and programs over a 20-year period (1982-2002). It was found that African-Americans experienced greater rates of HIV transmission from the outset, and that infection rates among Blacks have increased since 1990, while those for Whites have declined. These facts have been obscured by the "White man" stereotype that shaped early responses to HIV/AIDS, by the state's focus on gathering surveillance statistics rather than on targeted prevention, and by bifurcated racial politics that tacitly supported the notion of a "White" epidemic. The present analysis concludes that Alabama relied on national guidelines and funding that did not specifically address the racial dimensions of the epidemic until the 1990s, and that targeted programs for African-Americans are still deficient despite some recent initiatives.
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