No, there's no big event coming up, no anniversary that I know of. But that's why I'm talking about HIV/AIDS. It's every day. 24/7. Coretta Scott King, God bless her soul, said: "Anyone who sincerely cares about the future of Black America had better be speaking out about AIDS."
Mrs. King was my mother's generation, and Mama hasn't quite come to grips with the fact that my brother, John, and her brother, Richard, died of AIDS. Cancer? OK. Having Mrs. King say what she said was as profound as hearing the Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts 3d of the Abyssinian Baptist Church advising from the pulpit some years ago that folks -- especially men -- use condoms. The Black AIDS institute has great information (http://www.BlackAIDS.org). Phone: 213-353-3610. AIDS has become a Black disease, and we CANNOT deny that. Guys coming out of prison infect women -- many of them more older than younger and ashamed to say so. Teens often don't have a clue.
Read this excerpt from "AIDS in Blackface":
"Today, Blacks represent half of the more than one million Americans living with HIV. Between 2000 and 2003, Blacks accounted for 69 percent of new diagnoses among women -- and with an infection rate 18 times higher than among Whites. Among teens, Blacks are 66 percent of new infections."
We've got to DO SOMETHING about this. As Black History Month approaches and people get all nostalgic about what happened a hundred years ago and who invented what, PAUSE, REWIND and come back to the present.
3 comments:
Sadly, there is an economic issue with HIV/AIDS, and politics and sex and religion. I've first-hand seen this having spent 3 years on the business end of HIV. In Africa, Latin America, North America and Europe. The truth of the issue lies in the economics, and changing government policy and motivating religious leaders. Until that is truly effected, there will be little change. IMHO. I write about the HIV Economy; slimconomy.blogspot.com
I've posted a bit here and there about the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS, especially in the Black community, but I'm still startled by the statistics you shared.
Did you see recent reports that, while HIV/AIDS is a serious problem among the poor and uneducated in South Africa, there is an alarming rise in infection among more affluent, more educated there in the 34 and under demographic?
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