Race, blood, disease and citizienship: the making of the Haitian-Americans and the Haitian immigrants into 'the others' during the 1980s-1990s AIDS crisis

This article traces the 'otherisation' of US denizens of Haitian descent during the 1980s and 1990s, subsequent to their incorporation into the '4-H club' as 'Haitians', regardless of their citizenship. It argues that by collapsing the categories Haitian-Americans and Haitian immigrants into 'Haitians' and by accusing this collectivity of bringing HIV/AIDS to the United States, the US medical and political leadership and sectors of the media nullified the Haitian-Americans' US citizenship and maligned both groups' identity, promoting their alienation from the larger US population. It concludes with a plea to reframe the concept of citizenship and reassess the normative notion of belonging to the US nation-state.