The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and The Breakdown of Black Politics. by Cathy J. Cohen

The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics. By Cathy J. Cohen.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 394 pp.
Cathy Cohen’s Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics
examines the tension between African Americans’ historical willingness to mobilize racially
around “consensus issues” and the onset of the AIDS epidemic as an issue affecting the “black
community.” Cohen’s research demonstrates the ways in which public perception of AIDS as a
disease of gay White men, gay Black men, and intravenous drug users stratified an ostensibly
homogeneous Black community, despite the community’s history of mobilizing around racial
injustice. Cohen delineates a complex process of hierarchical formation called “marginalization
theory.” She suggests that marginalized groups internalize and replicate forms of
marginalization exhibited in dominant society. One such form, known as “secondary
marginalization,” employs a “rhetoric of blame and punishment—directing it at the most
vulnerable and stigmatized in [a community]” (27). According to Cohen, tensions arise when
subpopulations of African Americans are confronted with “crosscutting issues” affecting
multiple identities, such as those suggested by differences in class, gender, or sexuality. When
this occurs, a racial hierarchy develops in which those in the subpopulation are expected to defer
their differing interests to the interests of those sharing their presumed primary racial
identification. Racial elites, replicating their own marginalized status in larger society, blame or
ignore the stigmatized group in order to maintain the cultural capital they have gained from prior
mobilization and activism.
Having established a theoretical frame for her research of the AIDS epidemic in New
York, Cohen examines the ways in which institutions (the Centers for Disease Control, NAACP,
and Urban League), local and national politicians, and media outlets addressed issues associated
with AIDS from 1981 to 1993. Her field research includes interviews with policymakers,
activists, and community leaders as well as case studies and participant observation. Much of
Cohen’s statistical data derives from comparative analysis of print media from mainstream
newspapers, “indigenous” (Black) newspapers and magazines, and the alternative (leftist) press.
Cohen’s analysis also investigates differences in the public presentation of AIDS and responses
to the AIDS crisis, as well as means by which reactions to AIDS affect previous concepts of
community and activism in Black politics.
As expected, throughout her period of inquiry Cohen’s research revealed a pattern of
indifference and disdain for affected populations of AIDS victims based on homophobia and
classist attitudes concerning intravenous drug use. What is surprising, however, is the haphazard
way that these attitudes become institutionalized, thereby affecting other policies, and more
importantly the lived experiences of AIDS victims. Cohen cites, for example, the CDC’s lazy,
indifferent approach to investigating early reports of the disease. Latching on to the convenience
of the gay community as a previous site for the study of sexually transmitted diseases, the CDC
failed to make connections between AIDS and intravenous drug use. Their initial investigation
of the AIDS phenomenon as one exclusive to gay White men also influenced news coverage,
which consequently also framed its coverage of the disease in terms of its association with
homosexuals. Meanwhile, instances of AIDS in the intravenous drug-using population went
unreported. Cohen also cites Stephen Joseph, a former New York City health commissioner,
who claimed that unreported AIDS deaths from intravenous drug users actually surpassed the
Black Diaspora Review 2(1) Fall 2010 52
reported number of sexually transmitted cases. In other words, the CDC’s singular focus on HIV
in the gay community placed an inordinate focus on one site of development rather than multiple
sites. Cohen also cites CDC researchers’ perceptions of gays as sexual deviants as a significant
factor limiting objectivity and research options. Through the CDC’s unofficial policies and
practices, AIDS became a disease of “unworthy victims.”
Cohen later takes up the marginal status of AIDS victims as “unworthy” to demonstrate
how local and national politicians and leaders manipulated the AIDS crisis for their own political
capital, seeming to address AIDS issues but not acting on them. She also compares mainstream
and indigenous news sources, demonstrating a pervasive pattern of neglect and denial. Cohen
points to the process of secondary marginalization among Black elites as a key factor in making
AIDS victims, particularly gay Black men, invisible. She credits Black elites’ biased public
policy and the Black press’ inconsistent and inaccurate coverage of AIDS as particularly
significant to gay invisibility. Cohen indicts Black leaders and the Black press as pandering to
middle-class interests while distancing themselves from the poor, drug users, and gays affected
by AIDS. Both Black leaders and the Black press, says Cohen, have failed to identify with
marginalized populations because doing so hampers notions of elite respectability. Her
indictment is particularly scathing because, as she points out, Black leaders and the Black press
have traditionally been called upon to respond to and correct their dominant marginalizing
counterparts.
Through her examination of the AIDS crisis, Cohen illustrates the mutability of racial
bonds in the face of intersecting identities. Her research marks AIDS as a litmus test for the
strength of racial identification as a means of imagining community when multiple
identifications exist. However, Cohen concludes on a hopeful note: that Black, post-civil rights
elected officials may divest themselves from respectability politics in order to counter the AIDS
epidemic effectively.
Carmen Lanos Williams

Indiana University, Bloomington
Black Diaspora Review 2(1) Fall 2010 53

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The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics. By Cathy J. Cohen.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999. 394 pp.

Carmen Lanos Williams

Black Diaspora Review 2(1) Fall 2010 53

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