DOWNLOAD VIDEO
African immigrants in the U.S. are facing
stigma
amid the intensifying Ebola outbreak across the Atlantic Ocean in their home country.
The neighborhood of Park Hill on Staten Island is home to thousands of Liberians. Some Liberians have faced suspicion and fear from people in the United States, according to Oretha Bestman-Yates, president of the Staten Island Liberian Community Association.
"Liberia has become the face of Ebola," Bestman-Yates said.
Bestman-Yates said kids at school teased her 6-year-old son, saying he had Ebola. And after visiting Liberia in July, her employer put her on leave, even after a doctor determined that she was healthy.
Some immigrants from Ebola-stricken countries are afraid to return home but face financial hurdles, according to Corina Bogaciu, attorney for the African Services Committee.
These immigrants are applying to extend their visitor visa so they can remain in the U.S., but that visa does not allow them to work, leaving them with no means of making money, she said.
Ebola first appeared in Guinea in March and has since spread to other West African nations. Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with an infected person's bodily fluids, and there is no cure or vaccine for the virus.
Several cases have been diagnosed in the U.S., beginning with Thomas Eric-Duncan, who fell ill and died of Ebola after traveling to the U.S. from Liberia. Two health workers who treated him in a Dallas, Texas hospital also contracted the disease, and one has since recovered.
Another case of Ebola appeared in New York City last week. A doctor who had recently treated Ebola patients in Guinea was diagnosed with the virus and is being treated in a New York hospital.
Warm up questions
- What does stigma mean? What does it mean to be stigmatized? What are some examples of a person or a group being stigmatized?
- Where is Liberia? How do you think the Ebola outbreak in Liberia has affected the lives of people from Liberia living in the United States?
Critical thinking questions
- Why do you think people in the United States would fear interacting with someone who is from Liberia?
- What impact has the Ebola outbreak had on Liberian Americans?
- How has the social stigma of coming from Liberia (the country at the heart of the Ebola crisis) changed the way people are treating the Liberian American community in New York?
- What financial impact has the Ebola outbreak had on the Liberian community here in the United States and their families back home in Liberia?
- How has the outbreak impacted Liberians immigrating to the United States? What new challenges do they face?
- Imagine you are Bestman-Yates, president of the Staten Island Liberian Community Association. How would you try to address the stigma faced by Liberian Americans? Would you try to educate the general population or schools? Protest how you are being treated? Develop one “good” solution and one “bad” solution and explain why you think they would or would not be effective.
