by Paul Farmer
First published 2006
Paul Farmer examines the scientific claim that HIV traveled from Haiti to North America and finds it rooted in racism rather than evidence. This anthropologist and physician conducts the first comprehensive ethnographic investigation of AIDS within an impoverished community. Farmer argues that American attitudes of racism and ethnocentrism shaped supposedly objective scientific theories about the disease's geographic origins. His study reveals how prejudice masqueraded as medical research when scientists pointed to Haiti as the source of the North American epidemic. The book demonstrates how social biases infiltrate scientific methodology and conclusions, particularly when studying marginalized populations. Farmer offers readers a critical examination of how cultural assumptions distort medical research and perpetuate harmful stereotypes about disease transmission.
Genres: medical, african-american, anthropology, non-fiction, biography-memoir, history-of-medicine, disease, academic
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: marginalized-perspectives, social-commentary
Setting: Haiti, North America
Period: 20th-century
372 pages · ebook · University of California Press
Content warnings: racism