Subscribe to Breaking NewsAnother AIDS Stat That Will Be Ignored
A few years back when I was gainfully employed at a weekly newspaper, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a press release that noted blacks accounted for 50 percent of the new HIV/AIDS diagnoses “in the United States in the 33 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting.” I was convinced this was a story we should be all over; however, my editor at the time yawned. He thought the numbers tragic (!) but not particularly newsworthy.
We argued a bit but I didn’t put up much of a fight. What was there to say really? HIV/AIDS was spreading through the black community at an alarming rate but for some reason writing about it was wasting space. According to my boss there were more important tales to tell.
This silence around HIV/AIDS and black folk is not atypical. Remember the 2004 Vice President debate when neither candidate knew what moderator Gwen Ifill was talking about when she said black women and AIDS in the same sentence? About a year ago when reporter Jason Bellini was moderating a panel during Pride Week (another !) no one had much to say when he asked why gay rights organizations were not in alarm mode over the HIV rates of gay black men. And don’t even get me started on how long it took the predominately black church to even put its toe in the waters of testing and prevention.
Hopefully a report by the Black AIDS Institute will break our silence, but I have my doubts. Called “Left Behind! Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS Epidemic,” the report notes that while the US is a leader in dealing with AIDS in foreign lands, when it comes to the black community within US borders, the country is simply not doing enough.
“More Black Americans are infected with HIV than the total populations of people living with HIV in seven of the 15 countries served by PEPFAR [President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief],” said Phill Wilson, CEO of the Black AIDS Institute and one of the author’s of “Left Behind.”
This number indicts us all. Every single one of us.
Jeff,
Two things: 1) “bareback culture” isn’t the monopoly of gay black men as you point out, and 2) can you point to a line in the post where I blamed “the majority.”
Thanks
James
After over 20 years of news reporting and education that no one can possibly have escaped…
…This is an indictment of the black community for somehow escaping a global educational campaign.
I don’t know why.
At some point, it’s not the greater community to blame for something that has been blogged, reported on, and broadcast on race neutral tv shows and advertisements that anyone with access to something as simple as a public library should know about.
At what point does cultural responsibility lie with the individual families and neighborhoods? Or the person?
Barring an allegation that somehow the greater community managed to put some kind of censorship on any possible way anyone in the black community could have even heard about AIDS, its defenses, and its effects – not sure what else you expect?
Could it be as simple as that as it becomes more “mainstream” within the black community to accept man on man sex, guys (not black guys but guys) want to have more gay/bi sex?
Couple that with the explosion among guys of all races to embrace the “bareback” culture could be the reason for the rise?
That more black men are comfortable having sex with men, but are caught up in the bareback culture?
Shouldn’t the focus be on the “bareback” culture instead of blaming “the majority” for not caring about black HIV rates?
I never said black people didn’t discriminate or aren’t prejudiced.
Let not history bind us.Shackles they sow.Let not the fear of us to web the strings of hatred.Let history make change us from the past.Learning to change what not binds us molds us.
Bravo, Mr Withers, thank you for the facts. I am perplexed as to why many seem to get irritated by statements of the obvious. Blacks, Latinos, and Gay men of all backgrounds are factually disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS than their general population numbers.
Our society’s fascination with statistics force all of us to choose ‘tick-off’ boxes for race, ehtnicity and the rest. Fine, but can we, 25 years later, ever get beyond those stats? I am afraid not. The painfully obvious legacy of racial divide in this country, and the painfully obvious hatred of Gays by everyone else will continue to play their roles of havoc, mayhem, and continued increase in incidence of HIV infection.
Sorry to burst any bubbles over at the CDC or NIH – but intolerance, poverty, homophobia, racsim, lack of access…until these are seriously addressed, and they have NOT, the AIDS crisis will continue on and on…
I am embarrassed that I was born and live in the USA…is this all the better we can do to take care of our own (not just the GLBT community)…they are Americans for Goodness sake and deserve to be treated equally…keep this OUT FRONT, OUT LOUD, AND IN OUR FACES!!!
Thank you for bringing it up…GWM living with HIV here! We need to start another campaign! If not us then who?!?!!!?
It seems like whatever the original discussion, the argument always comes down to White are discriminatory to blacks and Blacks are discriminatory to Whites and Na Na Na Na! Unfortunately the problems continue on regardless of the third grade recess taunts.
Looks like we have veered away from the topic of the post.
Sincerely,
Oh, and “Mario” black people can be just as racist as any other group of people. If you self-servingly choose not to see/believe this – that is your issue.
I went into my “tirade” because of statements by the previous poster and actually, I wasn’t implying anything like what you claim I was. The FACTS are that many while injustices have occurred – many people in this country today had absolutely nothing to do with it nor did any of their ancestors – so exactly why should they bare a burden that they currently nor historically had anything to do with? And even if they could, how on Earth would you go about making up for past historical wrongs? Where would it end? Virtually every group in this country has suffered at one point or another and in one way or another? How would you go about “making up” for these past failings? How do you give back to the countless GLBT people whose lives has been severaly compromised or destroyed by “non-gay” people? How do you go about “making up” for the countless atroctities that have occured? Where is the starting point? Where is the ending point? How would you determine such a thing? It’s easy to claim what you claim, now lets hear some definite and plausible approaches to what is essentially a universal situation.
I don’t really see why “Chris” launched into a tirade against the supposed discrimination blacks are perpetrating against whites, but at any rate: “However, they also don’t feel that the actions of people who existed hundreds of years ago is their responsibility either. They are all for equality, but not at the expense of their own lives or the lives of their families. They did not create the circumstances that existed in the past (whether they were distant relatives or not) and don’t feel responsible for them.”
The question isn’t whether you created those circumstances or are responsible for them, but the fact is that if you have benefited from the inequality and oppression of blacks and Native Americans in the past (as most white people in the US have), then regardless of whether it’s your fault, it does mean that something is owed.
You can’t say you support equality, but you don’t believe that any wrongs need to be righted. You can’t say “Just because my grandfather stole everything your grandfather had and even tho my inheritance included those ill-gotten gains, that doesn’t mean I should have to give up a single thing!” You’re saying a terrible injustice was perpetrated in the past by our ancestors, and instead of blacks, Amer. Indians AND whites sharing the burden of that injustice, we should let the burden rest only on the shoulders of blacks and Native Americans, b/c it’s not our fault personally that it was put there.
The reality is that discrimination is a two way street. There is no such thing as “reverse-discrimination”. There is only “discrimination”. It doesn’t matter if it’s white against black or black against white. Virtually all of the white people I have met in my life have absolutely no problem with racial equality at all. However, they also don’t feel that the actions of people who existed hundreds of years ago is their responsibility either. They are all for equality, but not at the expense of their own lives or the lives of their families. They did not create the circumstances that existed in the past (whether they were distant relatives or not) and don’t feel responsible for them. Yes, it is very tragic that slavery occured. It’s even more tragic that the American Indians were virtually extinguished from their own land. It’s tragic the way the Irish were treated when they first came here. Its tragic that the Holocaust occurred. Its tragic that so many historical things have occured – but history has many examples of human suffering and tragedy. The question is, when and how do you get beyond that? Certainly, living your life and reality with the perpetual mindset that other people view you as inferior in some way will in turn create that reality for you. The truth is that most people these days are too busy trying to keep their own lives together to worry too much about helping other people do the same thing. Certainly, there is a sense that we all need to help each other out when need be – but there is also a level of personal responsibility as well. Life at its most basic level, has always been a “survival of the fitest” game. People are more than willing to give a helping hand when it is in the common good, they are not going to place a higher priority on someone else’s life than their own. That’s the reality. What people choose to do with that reality goes a long way in determining the quality of their lives.
There is point on perception to made here…
That is, like poverty and Darfurianhorror in Africa..
“Well, they’re just blacks. So..?”
We can hardly bare to admit it, but that is a cognitive thread which is common in the white, usta be Master? white demographic.
And a caveat too – that while black people MAY be a bit lustier than the rest of us (missing usual derogative = ‘promiscuity’);
A recently elucidated genetic propensity to acquiring, a susceptibility to getting HIV~AIDS has been uncovered, restricted to sub-saharan blacks -a bit like sickle cell (may be related, not sure)- has been described.
So keep it shut, all of us..for a change, until we know what’s goin’ on.
Well James, this is a story worth promoting. Of course, all HIV cases are important – but certain communities are definitely hit harder than others and those communities are often the ones that lack access to adequate medical treatment. At the very least, and what you rightly make clear here, is that the black community has been ill-served on several fronts – from the Federal Government down to local ministers, from rap/reggae groups who marginalize and stigamtize gay men to media stereotypes. Yes, the U.S. does seem to put a lot of money into HIV/AIDS to foreign countries, which is fine. However, since we currently have an Administration far more concerned with promoting its self-serving moral agenda at the expense of the well being of the general population – a sense of anger and frustration is more than justified. Hopefully, in less than a 100 days, a New Administration, headed by Barack Obama, will give greater voices to those communities who for too long have not been heard. In the meantime, as groups like ACT-UP proved long ago, speaking up, acting out -doing whatever can be done to make those voices heard, may be the most practical approach for the time being. Awareness = Attention = Action.
Keep it out there, keep it LOUD…. ACT UP… hint, hint if you have to.
That will take WORK… see all the last ACT UP had to do, but it was effective in making the whole country take up the battle against the HIV virus. Calif MD