AIDS-related stigma and attitudes toward injecting drug users among black and white Americans

Research has indicated that stigmatizing AIDS attitudes are associated with negative attitudes toward gay men. Because injecting drug users (ID Us) ar e also stigmatized and injecting drug use is an important exposure category for HIV infection, the authors hypothesized that AIDS stigma might also be related to attitudes toward ID Us and that the proportionately higher leve l of HIV transmission related to injecting drug use in the African American community would produce different patterns of stigma between Blacks and Wh ites. National probability samples of U.S. adults were interviewed by telep hone. Respondents with more negative attitudes toward ID Lis held more stig matizing AIDS attitudes, Among Blacks, such attitudes explained more varian ce than did attitudes toward gay men, a pattern opposite to that found amon g Whites. Moreover; knowing someone who injected illegal drugs was associat ed with less AIDS stigma for Blacks, but not for Whites. The results sugges t that Blacks' and Whites attitudes toward people with AIDS are informed by their different experiences of the AIDS epidemic.