ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the use of disease as an instructive metaphor for how devalued target groups should be viewed. We must be cautious of “alien” groups just as we attempt to protect our bodies from disease. Suspect individuals are apt to be viewed as potential parasites sucking the vital juices from the social body and diminishing its energy. Ironically, in many cases the occupational opportunities for such persons are purposefully limited, and thus the “other as parasite” metaphor is reified, or made real. Moreover, such populations often reside in environments (which they presumably create themselves) that are marked by disease, filth, and contagion. Anything that such individuals come into contact with, and particularly food, has potentially been infected. “Sanitation” of such blighted spaces, communities, and even entire regions may be justified as in keeping with public health mandates, and is necessary prior to having non-stigmatized populations live there.
