Silence = Death

(There would be a pic here but Blogger and I are having some technical difficulties)

While the idea-turned-reality of a woman with two cooters is jaw-dropping and the not-so-new-news not to marry a whoa-man if you want to be happy for the rest of your life is, well, not really shocking so much as annoying, it’s really a shame what ABC News highlighted this week and even bigger shame how little it’s been profiled.

Last night I watched ABC’s “AIDS in Black America: Out of Control” (I’m not too hot on that title, I think it steps too close to certain implications) where I learned that I am 23 times more more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women; that the infection rate is 8 times the rate of whites; that of all women with in the States with HIV, 68% are black; that while I and my fellow black folk make up 13% of the U.S. population, we account for over 50% of all new cases of HIV; and almost 70% of all newly diagnosed HIV-positive women in the United States are black women.

Those are just a few stats but they barely touch the surface of this segment, inspired by the 25th anniversary of the first reported cases of AIDS. There are some significant causes behind this clearly emergency situation such as black men who have sex with men not telling their female partners, and those same men not using protection with either partner (because to pull out a condom perhaps acknowledges what’s not being said), black women not using protection with their black male partners many of whom have just been released from prison (where a disproportionate number of black men reside, where AIDS infection rates are 5 times higher, and where there are no comprehensive national testing, prevention, or treatment programs), and a gaping wide hole in the mostly conservative black community where a discussion of sexuality in all its orientations and practices should occur.

Aids in Black America – ABC

– BB