Table 2.

Barriers

Group	Theme	Representative Quote(s)
Recipients	Rejection of the Sick Role/Denial of Disease Severity	“…I wasn’t going to take it [dialysis] and actually…I didn’t believe that I had kidney disease because I was asymptomatic. I never got sick; I was still jogging and walking.” “…That’s because most African-Americans … males…we refuse to go to the doctor until it’s too late. You know if I’d went to a doctor early, I probably could have prevented it [kidney disease]… but most of us, we think we are Superman, and it’s not true…if you go to the doctor, you can avoid most illness.”
Recipients	Privacy and the Use of Protective Disclosure	“And as far as the African-American community, I don’t think we talk about much, you know. We keep everything private, secret, secret. And other cultures, they explain to their kids and younger generation about what’s going on.”
Recipients	Unwillingness to Ask for a Kidney	“…I never actually discussed with her [my living donor], asked her … ‘Will you donate, be a donor for me?’ No I didn’t. I didn’t.”
Donors	Negative Responses from Others	“Other people were like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’… ‘You can’t make that decision.’…that’s the only thing that bothers me about this whole process. It was negative…I couldn’t tell you the how many times I heard, ‘Okay, just because it’s your mother.’ And from people that are close to me and that I love.” “People don’t understand. They don’t get it…I had to understand and really get it that these people are afraid…fear and ignorance will make people say anything…the moment, the day after surgery…it’s like a light switch…but that’s how I learned that it’s fear. It’s fear or ignorance.”
Donors	Recipient rejection- Overcoming the “no”	“I knew before going in that I wanted to do it, but once I got the information…it was more to convince my mother because she really didn’t want me to do it…”