The Equilibrium

Instead of receiving assistance from the state or community, black women are met with that violent racial bias that the conditions of their life seem to be of their doing and choice. As a result, these women are subsequently punished for their life circumstances (e.g. unintended pregnancy) despite their actual efforts to create new possibilities for themselves. This essay hopes to approach the ways in which public health disease assessment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in black communities has historically been insuf cient in actually tackling the social and structural forces that create poor health outcomes. Instead, it aims to pathologize their culture as a primary factor in the spread of HIV/AIDS.