Stand Up to Stigma

How We Reject Fear and Shame

“Stigma” is a simple two-syllable word, yet carries the weight of negative and often unfair beliefs that we hold about each other. Perhaps most tragically, stigmas lock people into stereotyped boxes and deny us all the right to be our authentic and whole selves. We all have the tendency to sit high and look low while proclaiming how progressive we’ve become. However, the reality is that we both perpetuate and experience the burden of stigma in our public and private lives every day.

Informed by decades of in-the-trenches experience, Dr. Pernessa Seele, a longtime public health activist who started one of the first AIDS education programs in the 1980s, has crafted a proven method to address stigma. Stand Up to Stigma looks at the impact of stigma on learning, job performance, economic growth, and healthcare with a major focus on its impact on our everyday, personal lives and well-being.

This powerful book confronts stereotype development, shows how to undo the processes and effects of stigma, and explains how we can radically change cultural thinking on the individual, interpersonal, and societal levels to put an end to stigmatization once and for all. If we are honest and committed to exposing the problems, Dr. Seele helps each of us vividly see how we privately stigmatize people whom we see as different from ourselves, particularly when they come from other backgrounds and cultures than our very own.

Dr. Seele imagines a world that few people can. She envisions that by eliminating stigmas about people different from us, we can change representations in the media, get rid of laws and policies targeting stigmatized groups, and overcome inherited biases within public health, religious, education, and other institutions. Dr. Seele believes we must begin to stand up to stigma and set an example for future generations.