THE VIRAL UNDERCLASS

A renowned journalist and scholar lays bare the unequal effects of viral pandemics and the ways in which capitalist power structures exploit—and indeed, create—a viral underclass.

In this riveting book, Northwestern professor Thrasher, who holds “the first journalism professorship in the world created to focus on LGBTQ research,” blends critical theory, engaging storytelling, and memoir to tell the stories of human beings whose lives and bodies are subject to a manufactured vulnerability sustained by classism, racism, and stigma. Through on-the-ground reporting from across the globe, the author deconstructs the entanglement among poverty, population density, policing, and viral illness, demonstrating that “viruses interact with the power structures already at play in our society so that those who are already marginalized are left even more susceptible to danger, exacerbating existing social divides. But more important…it is social structures that are the drivers, while viruses merely amplify.” Thrasher is masterful in his ability to contrast vivid anecdotes with carefully crafted, meticulously researched prose to shine a light on a few of the many people subjected to this feedback loop as well as the heroes who devote their lives to defending their communities against structural inequality and police violence. The author’s own role is significant: Through his reporting and activism, he altered the discourse surrounding the criminalization of HIV and helped free a Black man from a 30-year prison sentence, an ordeal that demonstrated “the overlapping maps of racism and policing and viruses.” Throughout this insightful and unflinching book, Thrasher is unafraid to let his anger shine, but he also consistently deploys love and compassion. In a text marked by mistreatment and loss, the author encourages hope: “Viruses have the potential to help us make a world predicated upon love and mutual respect for all living things, not just in the here and now, but across time and space.”

Powerful and revelatory, this is an essential, paradigm-shifting book.