Beginning in the late 1980s, ACT UP became famous/infamous for its direct action efforts confronting HIV/AIDS as both a “medical” disease and a “social” disease. Using creativity and democratic decision-making to leverage power, ACT UP highlighted the flaws and limitations of America’s healthcare and social service systems, exposed the profit motive behind AIDS-related policy decisions, used attention-getting direct actions to draw attention to their cause, and leveraged this attention to gain access to top-level decision makers and extracted promises for specific policy changes.
Video Link:
http://ezproxy.smumn.edu/login?url=https://filmplatform.net/product/how-to-survive-a-plague/ (Links to an external site.)
First, on your own, take some time to write a reflection on the following questions:
What kinds of thoughts and feelings did this film provoke for you?
Where do you see the characteristics of a community in the behaviors of ACT UP?
What role does conflict play in ACT UP members’ internal engagement with each other? What role does it play in members’ external engagement with non-members?
What do you see as the social worker’s ethical role when it comes to engaging with communities dealing with crisis conditions such as HIV/AIDS, mass incarceration, forced migration, poverty, racial violence, sexual violence, etc.?
Next, post a brief video to Canvas summarizing your reflection. Respond to at least two classmates who provoked you to think differently about these questions, and share with them any new ideas they had led you to consider.
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