Linking the Structure of African American Criminalization to the Spread of HIV/AIDS

Abstract

This article is organized in two parts. In the first, the author presents the racialized social system conceptual framework for understanding links between the criminalization of Blacks and the spread of HIV/AIDS. In the second, the author presents data from a focus group and in-depth interviews that collaborate that conceptual framework. The major findings are (a) the racialized social system manufactures a Black criminalized profile and contributes to the spread of AIDS; (b) the distrust of authority and lack of faith in institutional order is nothing short of a legitimation crisis for the society coming from the men in this sample; (c) the men expressed a profound lack of trust in public health; (d) they sincerely believe that Whiteness is out to annihilate them; (e) and they have made a commitment to fight back. The author argues these orientations will make HIV/AIDS intervention and prevention programs largely unsuccessful.