How do people respond to the news that they are HIV positive? To date, there have been few published qualitative studies of HIV diagnosis experiences, and none focusing on Caribbean people. Twenty-five HIV-positive Caribbean people in London, UK, related their diagnosis experience and its immediate aftermath in semi-structured interviews. Diagnosis with HIV caused profound shock and distress to participants, as they associated the disease with immediate death and stigmatisation. The respondents struggled with "biographical disruption", the radical disjuncture between life before and after diagnosis, which led them into a state of liminality, as they found themselves "betwixt and between" established structural and social identities. Respondents were faced with multifaceted loss: of their known self, their present life, their envisioned future and the partner they had expected to play a role in each of these. A minority of accounts suggest that the way in which healthcare practitioners delivered the diagnosis intensified the participants' distress. This research suggests that healthcare practitioners should educate patients in specific aspects of HIV transmission and treatment, and engage closely with them in order to understand their needs and potential reactions to a positive diagnosis. Adapted from the source document.
Reports on the researchers' findings 20 years after Lord Gifford's inquiry into race relations in the city after the 1980s Toxteth riots. Gifford reported on the prevalence of racial attitudes, racial abuse, and racial violence directed against the Black citizens of Liverpool. The authors' research focused on education and specifically the low percentage of Black teachers compared to the whole teaching workforce and the percentage Black population in the city.
Outlines some disparities in African Caribbean women's reproductive experiences in relation to contraception, abortion and infertility in contemporary UK, and calls for greater research into their reproductive experiences, in order to better understand and meet their reproductive needs.
Presents an account of African Caribbean men and women's beliefs and perceptions about the barriers of practicing a healthy lifestyle, focusing specifically on the effects of social exclusion, racism and ethnic identity.
A study based on a small survey of food and nutrient intakes and traditional dietary habits of African-Caribbean adults living in Staffordshire. Methods: A questionnaire, designed to collect demographic data and information on medical status, physical activities, dietary, cooking and food shopping habits was administered to a convenience sample of 39 adults.
Visibly black people of African and African-Caribbean descent (black people) are 2-5 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia and other psychoses than their counterparts from other ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom. However, the symptomology of psychotic illnesses and dissociative experiences are difficult to differentiate. Interestingly, black people detained under the Mental Health Act are more likely to give perceived racism as the cause of their emotional distress than their counterparts from other ethnic groups, but there is very little indication in the literature as to how perceived racism might exert its effect on black people's mental health.
Black Caribbean, black African, white other, and mixed ethnicity young men were most likely to report high-risk sexual behaviors, that is, sexual debut at the age of ≤13 years, having unprotected sex, and having multiple sexual partners. There were marked variations within groups commonly collapsed as “black” or as “Muslim.” Black Caribbean and black African young adults reported high rates of protective behaviors in addition to risk behaviors.
The purpose of this paper is to explore how ethnicity remains relevant to the workplace experience of minority ethnic graduate employees in contemporary British organizations. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 30 British Black Caribbean graduate employees drawn from a range of public and private-sector organizations to examine the ways in which they felt their ethnicity impacted on how they experienced their places of work.
Thirty British black Caribbean graduate employees were interviewed about how and when they experienced their ethnic identity at work. The findings demonstrated that increased salience in ethnic identity was experienced in two key ways: through 'ethnic assignation' (a 'push' towards ethnic identity) and 'ethnic identification' (a 'pull' towards ethnic identity).
A brief overview of London's carnival and its beginnings in the late 1950s. Claudia Jones committed herself to both the culture and political underpinning of Caribbean carnival when she founded the event. London's West Indian community embraced carnival as an important source of celebration and cultural identity in the face of racist intimidation in Britain. The essay explores various difficulties that black British artists face gaining recognition, particularly those who work in carnival.
