Immigrant Health, Health Services, and History University Module
Class
About this Module
Class 3: Medical Scapegoating and Discrimination
Introduction:
This class examines the history of the stereotyping of particular immigrant groups as disease carriers. Students will study how Chinese, Mexican, and Haitian immigrants and migrants were affected by medical stigmatization. They will also consider how these groups organized against discrimination and advocated for more effective public health practices.
Class Resources
Readings
- National Library of Medicine. Selected items from Outside / Inside: Exhibition Collection.
- Women and children held in a detention pen with a social worker at Angel Island Immigration Station, San Francisco, early 20th century
- “San Francisco’s Three Graces,” illustration by George Frederick Keller for The Wasp, May 26, 1882
- A street view of the city fires to control the bubonic plague, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1900
- Bracero workers being fumigated at Hidalgo Processing Center, photograph by Leonard Nadel, Texas, 1956
- I am not a disease: learn the facts about Ebola, design by Joe Scorsone and Alice Drueding for Posters Against Ebola, 2014
- Protest over U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban on Haitian blood donations, Brooklyn, New York, April 20, 1990
- Trauner, Joan B. “Chinese as Medical Scapegoats, 1870–1905.” California History Vol. 57, No. 1 (Spring 1978), 70—87.
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Chinese_as_Medical_Scapegoats,_1870-1905. - Molina, Natalia. “Borders, Laborers, and Racialized Medicalization: Mexican Immigration and US Public Health Practices in the 20th Century.” American Journal of Public Health Vol. 101, No. 6 (June 2011), 1024–1031. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.300056,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3093266/. - “Current Trends Prevention of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS): Report of Inter-Agency Recommendations.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 32, No. 8 (March 4, 1983), 101–103.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00001257.htm. - Lambert, Bruce. “Now, No Haitians Can Donate Blood.” New York Times. March 14, 1990.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/14/us/now-no-haitians-can-donate-blood.html - Cvolcy2006. “Haitian AIDS March.” YouTube video, 15:05. Posted January 10, 2011.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot3MrHTVaHU. - Hilts, Philip, J. “F.D.A. Set to Reverse Blood Ban.” The New York Times. April 24, 1990.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/24/science/fda-set-to-reverse-blood-ban.html.
Discussion Questions
- Compare the medical stigmatization and discrimination against Chinese, Mexicans, and Haitians at different times in U.S. history. What were some similarities and differences?
- List some ways that these groups fought back against discrimination and stigmatization. How successful were they? What kinds of actions can immigrant groups take on their own behalf? Can you think of other examples?
- Why did public health authorities believe that policies targeting specific ethnic groups would be effective? Is there any evidence that they were effective? Evidence that they were not effective?
- Can you think of alternative ways of preventing the spread of disease that do not target specific groups based on ethnicity or national origin?
