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Latonya lives in Virginia with hubby and twin toddlers. Latonya is a Hampton University graduate and works for a large faith-based health system on the east coast.

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So You Say I Am Too “Upperclass” to Have HIV?

July 30th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

HIV/AIDs is knocking on the door of black america and too many of us have let him in. We have been so worried about AIDS in Africa that we let that joker tip toe through the foyer. I certainly hope you and yours are not directly affected by HIV/AIDS, but if you are a black american, the likelihood is unfortunately high. The AIDS epidemic among African-Americans in some parts of the U.S. is as widespread as in some countries in Africa, according to a report out July 29 and reported by CNN.

Harlem.
Creative Commons License credit: Cpt. Obvious
The HIV Epidemic

Interestingly, the vast majority of black women with AIDS live in the South or Northeast. Our “go-to” for health-related statistics, the CDC, has “African-Americans” as the first topic on the HIV/AIDS website. Wow, what a reality check! Check out these CDC statistics from 2005.

What is going on with my people? How is this happening? AIDS researchers do not have strong evidence to support an explanation. What we do know is that one in every two people living with HIV is black! Peter Jennings reported in 2006 that black women are 23 times more likely to be diagnosed with AIDS than white women. In 2001, black women were 14 times more likely to die of AIDS than white women (We may be at 15 to 16 times in 2008).

Excuse my French, but what the hell?

Share with your friends and associates that AIDS remains the leading cause of death among black women between ages 25 and 34. It’s the second-leading cause of death in black men 35-44. This is all very alarming. What’s even more alarming is that some practitioners in the health care sector who don’t understand this epidemic are clueless.

Several years ago, I went to my primary care physician whose practice is affiliated with Duke University Medical Center. The physician is Asian and I had seen her once before for an internal medicine checkup. I like to get all my tests done — cholesterol, diabetes, thyroid, etc. — when I see an internist annually. I, matter-of-factly, asked her for an HIV test. She responded that she would not give me one because I do not fit the socioeconomic status of someone with HIV.

Yes, you read this correctly.

She was dead serious. She even indicated that my insurance would not pay for it because of that reason. I wanted to take her notepad and bop her over the head to knock some sense into her. Instead, I educated her on the aforementioned statistics. I took the test (insurance covered 100%) and am happy that I was persistent at a very vulnerable time. However, to this day I can not believe the ignorance related to black women and HIV. Remember when Dick Cheney and John Edwards were asked the question about the epidemic of AIDS among black women at a vice-presidential debate in 2004 and they looked like 3 year olds would look if asked to discuss the origin of monkeys. How insignificant and ignored did black women feel at that moment?

My question is, what contributes to black women contracting HIV/AIDS at such an increased rate? Is it poverty, unprotected sex, lack of education about HIV/AIDS, low-quality health care, drugs, mulitple sexual partners, lack of morals, incarceration of black men, mate “on the down low”, or failure to use condoms? Why are WE getting kicked by the Black Ninja so hard? Haven’t black americans suffered enough? Here are a couple of things we need to contemplate:

Prevention is the solution for infection.

P1070674
Creative Commons License credit: Mayu ;P
AIDS Awareness Ribbon

We need to open up about the disease and talk to family and friends about this epidemic. We are too conservative when it comes to this disease. Yes, people are having premarital sex, sex outside of marriages and bisexual relations. Stop the stigma so people can get the support they need. We must have culturally specific prevention programs that are pervasive in our communities, churches, and health clinics. Tell our young boys to wear that raincoat…everytime!

An infrastructure for systematic testing should be implemented.

As we know, a disproportionate number of black men are in prison. Prisons have AIDS infection rates 5 times higher than the general population. Many men go to prison HIV negative, but come out HIV positive (the reason why is another lengthy discussion). A majority of these released prisoners do not know their HIV status. When these men are released from prison, they are welcomed by the women who waited for them and subsequently infect them unknowingly. There needs to be a comprehensive national testing and treatment for released inmates.

I can go on and on about remedies for what ails us as we confront this enormous challenge. Help me out, what can we do to save our sisters and brothers?

Viewing 11 Comments

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    You want to stop AIDS in the black community? Take responsibility for your own actions and stop having unprotected sex with multiple partners. Every one in the US knows that and the black community knows it as well. When you engage in high risk activities you have no one to blame but yourself.
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    @Arthur

    It's not that simple. Vices in today's world have never been that simple.

    The tweener at 15 who doesn't have positive male figure feels pressured to please and hang around an older guy who treats her nice.

    A young dude who is getting pressure from his friends to 'get some' from his girl thinks the world will end if his friends think he is a pussy for not.

    People who go out and really like someone tend to be too nice and not demand that someone have been tested before sleeping with them after the club.

    Are they reasonable excuses? No. But to simple point the finger and say 'well, you need to do better' doesn't prevent anything. We need tools, better education tools, to make the education of one's status as commonplace as brushing your teeth.

    How do we do it?

    It has to get out of the shadows of being taboo and be able to be discussed by everyone, in the light, on the table, gay or straight, positive or negative....without judgment.
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    Do you really believe that African American men, more than 8 times as often as white Americans or Native Americans or Asian Americans, indulge in this sort of behavior:

    “having unprotected sex with another man who has HIV
    sharing injection drug works (like needles or syringes) with someone who has HIV
    having unprotected sex with a woman who has HIV”;

    and that African American women, more than 20 times as often as white Americans or Native Americans or Asian Americans, indulge in this sort of behavior:
    “having unprotected sex with a man who has HIV
    sharing injection drug works (like needles or syringes) with someone who has HIV”?

    I don’t.

    Anyway, the evidence is that “HIV” tests are racially biased and don’t detect a virus; have a look at “The Origin, Persistence and Failings of HIV/AIDS Theory” (McFarland 2007; see http://failingsofhivaidstheory.homestead.com/) and my blog at http://hivskeptic.wordpress.com/
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    don't forget about those down low boys...
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    I believe there are a few key reasons that black women are so susceptible to AIDS infection:

    * Legacy Slave Mentality: During slavery in the United States, the most valuable contribution a black female slave could make to society was via the vagina between her legs and the womb in her stomach. Her vagina could be used to provide pleasure (often to white slave masters) and her womb could make more slaves. Women were often used to breed with multiple physically superior black men (”bucks”) to produce strong children who would become strong slaves. This tendency to have multiple sexual partners has, in many ways, been passed on to black women today.
    * Poverty: For multiple reasons (the legacy of slavery and racism being a big one), many black people live in poverty. People in poverty cannot afford to do things that people with money do to entertain themselves: travel, play golf, watch an opera, etc. However, one form of entertainment that has a very low price tag is sexual activity. Couple this with my first point, and you have a lot of poor people having sex with multiple partners. Therefore, people in poverty (again, many of whom are black) have a higher rate of unplanned pregnancies as well as the other outcome of such behavior: sexually transmitted diseases.
    * Strained Black Male/Female Relationships: The relationships between black men and women in this country has almost always been strained. Black families were often torn apart during slavery which seriously damaged the fundamental part of any ethnic group. Today, many black women are doing better than their black male counterparts in terms of education and income. This causes black men to often resent black women and compensate by being overly domineering. Therefore, black men may insist on sexual activity without condoms and threaten to leave the relationship if this demand is not men. Black women may feel that they have to give in to these demands in order to keep the man.
    * Lack of Education: Along with poverty comes a lack of access to educational resources. Despite the plethora of information about HIV and AIDS, many black people know very little about it. In fact, some black people think that AIDS has been cured since Magic Johnson (who famously admitted to being infected) is still alive and looking well.

    These factors (and many more) make black women extremely vulnerable to HIV infection.
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    The reason this disease is so rampant in the african american community is because of the "Down low" lifestyle many gay black americans live. For whatever reason they are so afraid to come out of the closet and be who they are that they have sexual encounters whatever chance they can get, and as quickly as possible. By doing this, they sometimes skip over proper protection practices just so they could get off quickly in an attempt to not get caught. They then in turn have sex with women and spread the disease.

    The closeted lifestyle that these people live is to blame. Im sorry boys but if you are DL you aint butch or tough, your cowards and just plain weak. Come out and practice safe sex with who you want to be with, not a quicky at the train station catch something and bring it home to your wife or gf. That's just lame.
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    well i believe the stats as more of my friends have kids than careers. i have not been able to have a successful relationship with a black guy because as soon as i ask about their last AIDS test, they run. y is this? the others have no problem with this, but the brothas do. i love my life and my family enough to not kill myself by humping.

    random fact, the CCHILLS theater has an awesome lineup of great old school r&b and neo soul acts. they also offer free AIDS tests, and you get a fun shopping bag that you can reuse while picking up items. what a double whammy of positivity! how's about no one was frequenting the AIDS table. we want to ignore this like its not a stark reality, not gonna work folks! i made my cousin take a test and he said, "man i ain' even wanna do all this. u ruined my night" after we got tested he never went back for his results, i am PROUD to say that i don't have the AIDS and i'm a-ok! him? well let's just pray his penis doesn't fall off...

    GET IT TOGETHER brothas and sistas.
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    I think AIDS' Origin Traced Back More Than a Century!
    Smoking AIDS Drugs to Get High in South Africa!
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    Ca't believe that.
    Very scary as one of my friend's has this.
    God bless him
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    Thank you Anjuan!! Give me some good books to read, but you really hit the nail on the head, as they say in the business world!

    www.books4blackwomen.com
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    sex is basic need thus it's hard to prevent HIV through limiting sexual activities
 
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