African American homosexual males are widely discriminated across the world for having HIV/AIDS. With over a million people living with HIV/AIDS today, half of the population reported are African American. In the early 80s, many African Americans viewed HIV/AIDS being a disease that only white gay men could get, because of the medias depiction of it. Some black males at the time did not believe that this disease could affect them, even though they accounted for most of the population living with HIV/AIDS. Many women were also infected from their partners who unconsciously knew they had the disease. Among black males, 43% were noted to have the disease from male to male intercourse. Even though these are shocking numbers, they continue to grow through the years dramatically.
Since then, there have been many activist, non profit organizations, and celebrities that have went out to the media and all over the world trying to educate people about this growing epidemic. Many celebrities such as Earvin "Magic" Johnson have came out to the public about living with HIV, showing that it is possible for anyone of any race or ethnicity to get the disease, no matter if they are homosexual or not. Although there are many reasons for why the African American community are mostly targeted for getting HIV/AIDS, there have been many organizations formed to raise money to help those in need and with low income. With money being used for research and medicine, many people are in hope that this world wide epidemic will soon cease.
DID YOU KNOW?
"The estimated lifetime risk of becoming infected with HIV is 1 in 16 for black males, and 1 in 30 for black females, a far higher risk than for white males (1 in 104) and white females (1 in 588). In Washington D.C, which has the nation’s highest district HIV prevalence (3%), three-quarters of those infected with HIV are African American. According to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, African Americans "comprise the greatest proportion of HIV/AIDS cases across many transmission categories, including among women, heterosexual men, injection drug users, and infants."
"HIV and AIDS among African Americans." AIDS & HIV information from the AIDS charity AVERT. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Feb. 2011. <http://www.avert.org/hiv-african-americans.htm>.
It's such a shame that the statistics for African Americans is so much higher than that of any other race. Classes should be offered so that people can protect themselves better when situations that involve HIV/AIDS occur.
ReplyDelete-Sonatra-
Sonatra, post your full name, please.
ReplyDeleteYou are very correct, Alicia, when you say that African Americans breathe a sigh of relief when the media said that AIDS was a white male, middle class problem. They wanted to believe so much that finally here was something that would not harm them. So with their heads in the sand, the continued to have unprotected sex, believing that a virus could tell the color of someone's skin. Now they are mega years behind in prevention. There is a lesson to be learned here.