Racial-Ethnic Disparities in HIV/AIDS and Health Care in the United States: Evidence from a Sociological Field Research in Alabama's Black Belt.

Abstract

This paper examines African Americans' beliefs of psychosocial factors associated with racial HIV/AIDS and health disparities using an exploratory qualitative study. This research was conducted to determine how African Americans define their health and disease burden, the reasons for their plight; the problems they face; their coping strategies for providing daily necessities of shelter, transportation, and health care. If we ignore the voices of African Americans, we have dehumanized them, making their humanity invisible. Without hearing the voices of African Americans, our understanding of their social life and health issues is incomplete. Analyses from the top down miss the insights that only those experiencing racial health disparities can articulate. Their voices have important implications for policymakers interested in eliminating racial health disparities and promote equity in health. The focus groups discussions in the paper provide the voice, the presence, and the perspective of African Americans who live on the margins and are generally invisible to the rest of us. Issues surrounding racial health disparities are complex, difficult, and controversial. Results indicate that health insurance, lack of access to quality health care, environmental hazards in neighborhoods, poverty, lack of medical practitioners, unhealthy eating habits, poor life style choices, lack of African Americans in health care professions, lack of trust in white health care professionals and unemployment contribute substantially to racial health disparities in America. Health care is a by-product of the distribution of power and the organization of the society.