The Borders of AIDS : Race, Quarantine, and Resistance

Winner of the 2022 Book of the Year Award, sponsored by the Latina & Latino Communication Studies Division of the National Communication AssociationWinner of the 2022 Diamond Anniversary Book Award, sponsored by the National Communication AssociationUnpacks the exclusionary politics of AIDS and traces little-known coalitions among affected communitiesAs soon as US media and politicians became aware of AIDS in the early 1980s, fingers were pointed not only at the gay community but also at other countries and migrant communities, particularly Haitians, as responsible for spreading the virus.Evangelical leaders, public health officials, and the Reagan administration quickly capitalized on widespread fear of the new disease to call for quarantines, immigration bans, and deportations, scapegoating and blaming HIV-positive migrants-even as the rest of the world regarded the US as the primary exporter of the virus. In The Borders of AIDS, Karma Chávez demonstrates how such calls proliferated