Revisiting the Stigma Associated with the “AIDS Carrier” Label: An Analysis of the Haitian-American Community's Perspective

Haitians have been migrating to the United States for centuries with a significant increase in number since the political turmoil during the Duvalier era in Haiti.  The most recent wave of migration to the US occurred after the 2010 earthquake. Despite the political, economical, and environmental challenges leading Haitians to migrate, a unique source of strength and resilience for the Haitian community has been the Haitian identity strongly associated with the 1804 revolution that led Haiti to become the first independent Black Republic in the Western hemisphere. The portrayal of Haitians as the only ethnic group at high risk for HIV/AIDS by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the 1980s, however, created additional obstacles to Haitian adjustment in the US, including the persistence of a stigma that continues to affect the health outcomes of Haitian immigrants in the United States. Since then, several Haitian-American leaders have attempted to disassociate Haitian identity in the US from the stigma of being the “source of  AIDS”.  In this paper, we use the PEN-3 theoretical model to analyze how Haitian immigrants’ resilience over time and over generations has served as a buffer in their response to a recent media announcement linking Haitian women with HIV/AIDS. These findings will help design improved interventions designed to reduce HIV/AIDS in the Haitian-American community.