AIDS in the Black Community: What’s the Hold-Up?

AIDS in the African American community has seemingly lost its luster. Despite the concentration and growth of AIDS among African Americans, improvements have been limp. Discussions have seemingly become more sparse, as many circles have conceded HIV/AIDS to be a “Black person’s disease.”

The Congressional Black Caucus will meet on September 15-18 to elucidate on a national AIDS strategy. Community leaders recognize AIDS as a persistent ill and they do a decent job of keeping the topic on their tongues in public forums. Black publications don’t let it stray too far from their pages and websites either.

Special reports are being conducted on it. Public policy scholars from many universities continue to bilk grants from the government to study it. But yet, the effects are still pervasive. Blacks account for over 50 percent of new cases of HIV/AIDS infections. And this was nine years ago.

Many within liberal and African American circles believe that the government planted AIDS among “certain” people. According to a 2005 Washington Post article, almost half of 500 Black people surveyed believe AIDS is a man-made disease. Even more believe a cure is available, but withheld from the poor. Does embracing this conspiracy encourage nihilism and prevent wholesale improvement? If the cause and spread of this disease is beyond our control, then why take preventative approaches? Why take the extra effort to use prophylactics and sterile needles?

The success of Magic Johnson has led many to believe that AIDS can be usurped with hard work and the right “treatment.” This doesn’t help in the government skepticism department, and it certainly doesn’t help thwart the prevalence of AIDS. Johnson has done a lot to dispel the myth that he is cured. He even warns against infected people thinking that HIV/AIDS is easily beatable.

“You can’t take that attitude that you’re going to be like Magic,” says Johnson. “Since I announced 15 years ago, hundreds of thousands of people have died of HIV/AIDS. There will be more people dying. The virus acts different in all of us. There’s no certainty that if you get the virus, you’re going to be OK.”

Arthur Ashe wasn’t as lucky. Neither was Eazy-E. Neither are countless others whose tales won’t even register on the radar blip of, say, Timothy from the Bronx Academy of Fine Arts.

Robert R., an African American male from Missouri, was the first confirmed case of HIV/AIDS in the U.S. He died in 1969, when he was 16 years old. Doctors estimate almost 20 years passed since the first AIDS symptom and its confirmation, in 1984. His sexuality was questioned, but never proven. From the onset, it appears this disease has been linked to closet behavior. CONTINUE READING...