- Reviews & Essays
- The HIV Panic That Should Happen
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According to BlackWomen'sHealth, in 1999, African Americans made up 13 percent of the population, yet accounted for 41 percent of all AIDS cases in the United States. The Harvard AIDS Institute estimated that by the year 2000 more than half of all our country's AIDS cases would be within the African American community.
Numerous reports have been made about the differing percentages of Black women and men infected with HIV/AIDS, emails circulate, billboards grow, commercials air and, knowledge seems to be in great supply. So why are the numbers continuing to grow? Why are more and more Black people finding themselves the receivers of the news that they are, in fact, HIV positive?
Is it truly the oft-used "Gay men are the culprits," excuse? Is it really the reasoning that Blacks are sexually promiscuous animals who cannot control their urges long enough to put on a prophylactic? Could it really be that there are more closeted Bisexual and Gay Black men than ever?
There are so many questions and seemingly so few answers. It leaves me with an empty feeling inside knowing that Black and Hispanic women are finding themselves alone in the offices of so many clinics day after day, alone to deal with the questions that have no answers.
Where is it coming from? Why is it concentrated in so many lower-income communities? Why are so many minority women infected with the virus? Who is doing it? Why not use condoms? Why not protect ourselves?
It pains me to ask these questions, knowing that there are no forthcoming answers or quick-fixes for the problem.
I have talks on an almost daily basis with Black and Hispanic men and women who have their own views on why the HIV epidemic in America is at an all time high in the minority communities. I come out with the same frustrations... that it is truly the fault of the GLBT community that has seeped into other communities, that the reason is because of Black men who are afraid to come out, that the reason is because minorities are too afraid to be tested for HIV and, so many other reasons too numerous to name.
Today the topic once again came up and I was faced with misnomers and irrational generalizations about why the virus is so prevalent in the poorer areas of the US.
One theory even came up that black people are less likely to be tested because of the fear that HIV is a man-made disease built solely to destroy the minority communities in America. That may seem odd to those readers who do not live the lives that we live, but when one is raised knowing about the Tuskegee Experiments, it doesn't seem so far fetched anymore.
Who do we go to when we're sick if the healers are killing us? Who do we go to for privacy and dignity when we are listed and named as soon as positive tests come back? Where do we turn when we understand that being HIV positive is still something so dirty, so sickening and, so horrible that we believe even our family members will turn us away?
How do we deal with that? How do we stop it? How do we come to collectively understand that we are at a crossroads and a decision must be made and followed before we wipe ourselves out?
Vilifying minority men and women may push them to deny symptoms but it is only the beginning of an attempt to hold ourselves accountable for what is going on in our communities. It's being shared between men and women [especially in the gay and black communities].
We need to take responsibility for what's happening in OUR WORLD and start to do something about it. Use a condom EVERYTIME! Stop the one night stands. Stop the anonymous oral sex in clubs and house parties. Grow respect for not only yourself and your community, but for your world.
This epidemic has gone entirely too far. In a country that is arguably one of the most advanced and richest countries in the world, there is absolutely no reason that our education system cannot take up some of the slack and start to teach the younger children about what HIV is, what it does to the human body, how it is spread and, how to prevent it from spreading.
There is no reason parents cannot start to be open with their children and let them know that abstinence is not horrible, that condoms are not sinful and that thinking through decisions completely before making them is not bad.
There is not a reason in the world that we cannot all be accountability partners for each other to begin to change what is killing us all, in one way or another.
- COMMENTS
Anonymousalmost 8 years agoThey do teach about hiv and how its spread in schools. Its just that the public school systems teachings of sexual health is laughibly incomplete. Sexual health and the reproduction system come at the very end of the school year after EOCs are taken and school is taken a lot less seriously. I took anatomy and physiology honors in my senior year of HS (which just ended) and they didn't even go over sex and the reproductive system because they were trying to graduate seniors with last min shit, theyre disorganized and used the whole schoolyear to teach for the EOC which had nothing on sex in any form. The whole public school system needs to be done over again. Schools only teach for the test (end of coarse exams) and dont actually teach youth about things they actually need to know for real life. I took HOPE (health optimized physical education) in my sophomore year and again, incomplete, and didnt go over the many STDs one can contract or even how to put a condom on properly or ALL the different types of birth control, i had to go on youtube to find out how to do that when i was 15 or 16 but at that time i wasnt really concerned about satisfying my own sexual needs until i was 15 or 16 (i was a late bloomer). I know everything i do now because i did my own research and my mom taught me some about sex (im a child of a single mother, daddoesnt care for being in my life). Now statistically i should have my own child now, considering my background, ethnicity, socio economic condition, and that im not 21 yet and am not married, but i beat the odds. But some people arent so lucky. In school they dont even tell you go go online for the wealth of info to fill in the gaping gaps school left behind.
Anonymousover 11 years agoThe big thing this essay misses:
most of the risk of a black woman getting infected with HIV comes from having a partner who is a hard drug user(coke/meth/opiates).
It isn't just STD testing of partners that needs to be encourage: but drug testing.
Swingers and non-drug using prositutes are actually moderate risk populations for HIV.
Anonymousabout 13 years agoThe social reasons are multiple as you noted back '05. This includes racial and penal and racism influences. International impact no matter how minor has to be screened out. World rates might over ride because these days immig policies mean only the richer officially make it. Question of vacations and sex complex, similarly across all eth groups. Some may correlate educational achievement. However the social economic points above overwhelm development study measures. Self expectation is ingrained by the age of 7-8. This makes such ed Comps statistically nearly totally unsound. Start to finish with parental ed background, income, and peer group expectations would have to be weighted. As would exam culture. The only real comparison is with other ethnics of comparable income and social circumstances, and ed culture division. I am sure their must be inter-state inter poverty studies but sympathetic?? Then you may begin to isolate meaningful culture influence. The resource issue impacts on condom wear, and availability. Culture IS dominated as you hint by economics.
Drug culture is another factor. Addicts are known higher ineffection rates. Bend honesty and no questions sex. (Pro's are more adept condom users than the community as a whole. Be careful in your thoughts.) However the poorer you are the more your social contacts and perceptions of wealth, and so bodily access are affected. All clinical addicts face a resource question but at the bottom the options are stark. The myths and reality of mexican border crossings and drugs again complex, but beg obvious ethnic impacts. Again inter-state checks. While there are safe sex, testing and treatment campaigns still REQUIRED with Spread underlined for the conservatively blind, recall even in 2005 some DAFT t . .ts thought it was a gay issue. The only plaster you can stick over this gaping wound for now, it seems, is to issue girls of 12! And above with a packet of C's and make access easy, with empathetic counselling. Hear the religious demons scream. We are talking about life sickness and lives, not screening morals into absurd camps. NB this includes the muslim Brotherhood to be clear; racism and religion-ism seeks any gate.. And making the serious and fatal affects part of boys of such ages, and mens thinking. This has to include death and hosp admission TRENDS and figures. The emphasis on the former to look for reasons and avoid This health issue becoming yet another racist flag. Doubts? Think how The President is reflected by some. By the blind to all else. The major sadness is that you do not need my studies or work experience to know this, no suprises for those that stop and even half think, the suprise is the bias and ranking in addressing it. The flu risks were escalated above . . . Wonder if the risks were more spread!! Please feel free to use THE Drift of this message all you like. White economist, with health And inequality studies, media awareness and social care experience. The truth is out there, a program once begun.
Anonymousover 15 years agoYou get AIDS from someone that has AIDS. If they didnt have HIV you could not get HIV, thru blood, medical treatments, sex, eating after them, kissing, I will address those in a minute. The new medicines we have do prolong peoples lives after they are infected it doesnt cure them is just stops the progression of the disease. What that means is that people with no control, with no morals, with no concern for therr fellow human, have more chances to pass that infection on to many more people. Back to the original statement, it doesnt matter where the disease comes from, it doesnt matter what community has been infected, you only get the disease from someone who has it! Someone can tell me you cant get HIV from saliva, yeah right, you only get it from bodily fluids. Ever bit you cheek eating, bit your tongue, had teeth bleed, scrapped the inside of your mouth with you food? Ever coughed up blood or stomach fluids. What was that you said about not getting AIDS from kissing or eating after people, yes it is not as likely but it can and does happen. Remember the dentist that drooled saliva into his patients mouths in Jacksonville and the patients that then came down with AIDS from the dentist? Years ago to stop the transfer of the highly infectious TB people were put in sanitoriums and cared for to stop the widespread disease, better drugs came out that cured the disease, and it is not widely heard of now. Wonder why with a highly infectious disease that caused a death sentence we could not isolate the few original cases and stop the spread of the disease. Oh yes, it showed up in the homosexual community and it became a political disease not a death sentence. You didnt even have to name your sexual contacts like people with nonlethal STDs were forced to do. The highest rate of HIV is in Africa, the poor, medically deprived, ethnic populations that believe in sex at early ages. Now go back and read this essay again and realize this could have been stopped years ago but now is out of control. Then go to your local bar and pickup that barfly who fucked someone else last night and enjoy your erotic fling!
Anonymousalmost 18 years agoso you turned the voting off? I read this before.
oft-used - not with a hyphen.
who cannot - "that" cannot. You use the word "who" when you're speaking about a human being, not an animal. You are calling blacks animals. *rolls eyes*
Why not protect ourselves? - "us" would be correct.
Stop the one night stands. - "one-night" should be with a hyphen.
quick-fixes for the problem. - "quick fixes" without the hyphen
That's just the technical stuff.
Over-all, I think it's okay but it's definitely not cool for a porn board. Also, I would be sure to check for typos before you submit anything more. You're on your way, though.
