HIV Microaggressions Across Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems: A Social Justice Perspective

Abstract

Microaggressions play a prominent role in the cultural competency of the rehabilitation professionals. Understanding these biases and stereotypes faced by the individuals living with HIV/AIDS from a social justice and systemic perspective is crucial to become a culturally competent rehabilitation counselor. The current article is a systematic review of the anecdotal and scientific literature from 1900 to 2017 about these microaggressions toward individuals with HIV/AIDS. Authors present the common themes that emerged out of this extensive qualitative analysis by utilizing the Urie Bronfenbrenner's ecological model as a basis and discuss its impact from a social justice perspective. Implications for rehabilitation counselors and future recommendations are presented at the end.