Liberian-American Woman’s Powerful Video Slams Misdirected Ebola Stigma
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/10/22/3582749/mother-fights-ebola-stigma/
CREDIT: Screenshot from Shoana Solomon’s viral video
After Solomon’s 9-year-old daughter was told she has a disease because she is from Liberia, Solomon shared the incident on Facebook. A day later, Solomon’s niece sneezed in school and was sent home, despite having never traveled to Liberia or interacted with anyone who had visited the country in the past two years.
So Solomon, a TV presenter, decided to take action by publicly addressing misdirected discrimination. In her video, Solomon holds a sign with the campaign’s slogan and talks about her child’s experience, as well as the experiences of many others who have been ostracized.
“I am hurt and upset. We are Liberians, Sierra Leoneans, Guineans, and Nigerians. We live in a region that has been devastated by a deadly disease, but we’re not all infected. It is wrong to stereotype and stigamatize an entire people. Remember, we are human beings.”
Solomon is not the first person to start an internet campaign to change the framing of the Ebola narrative.
Acclaimed actor Jeffrey Wright recently launched the #CrushEbolaNow campaign to counter the perception that the virus is a death sentence. “We could do well focusing on the strengths of the affected regions and not entirely on the weaknesses despite the enormity of the challenges,” he said in an interview with ThinkProgress.
“I found the news narratives disturbing. It didn’t take into account the absence of health infrastructure in these countries. These reports say that the outbreak is a function of the virus when it’s not. The outbreak is a function of economic underdevelopment. I wanted to reframe that narrative and speak closer to the reality that exists there.”