In the “ACT UP, Haitian Migrants, and Alternative Memories of HIV/AIDS”, I found the discussion around the ACT UP and different narratives that are spun about the United States’ handling of political refugees that tested HIV-positive. I had not heard anything about these protests before, and I also had no idea that the government even had a ban on accepting refugees who were HIV positive in the 80s because that wasn’t really something that was covered in school yet. The AIDS / HIV epidemic is something I didn’t really know much about aside from external media like movies.
This article made me think about how little modern history is contextualized in schools. Very little history between the civil rights movement and modern day is told, and if any information is shared, it’s only about what specifically happened on that day and not what led up to it. We learn very little about the Opioid epidemic or the War on Terror except that it’s a thing that is happening right now. We learn nothing about perspectives or context, partly because some of these events still are happening or have on-going effects that might be too uncertain to teach in middle/high schools.
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