“Work What You Got”: Political Participation And HIV-Positive Black Women’s Work To Restore Themselves And Their Communities

Authors

Monica L. Melton, Spelman CollegeFollow

Disciplines

African American Studies | Cultural History | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Gender and Sexuality | History of Gender | Medicine and Health | Race and Ethnicity | Women's Health | Women's History | Women's Studies

Abstract

Black women’s rates of HIV/AIDS infection have skyrocketed in comparison to other racial and ethnic groups over the past thirty years. Despite these rates, HIV-positive Black women’s perspectives are rarely sought regarding best practices to eradicate and interrupt HIV/AIDS among African American women, even though historically Black women have often proved phenomenal agents of social change. HIV-positive Black women’s activism has been understudied and input from the community in crisis has rarely been deemed as valuable to public health officials in HIV/AIDS prevention and interventions. Through the narratives of thirty HIV-positive Floridian Black women, I present HIV-positive Black women’s political participation around these emerging themes: 1) face-to-face activism 2) activist mothering, and 2) publically coming out as women living with HIV/AIDS.

Recommended Citation

Melton, Monica L. (2014) "“Work What You Got”: Political Participation And HIV-Positive Black Women’s Work To Restore Themselves And Their Communities," Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/jift/vol8/iss1/2