HIV/AIDS: America’s Black Plague
February 7, 2007 is being celebrated as National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Organizations have events planned all across the country. I’m sure prominent politicians and spokespersons of color will be trotted out and speak passionately about how this still devastating disease is wreaking havoc in communities of color. Their words will ring true.
This epidemic could be renamed the Black Plague, because HIV/AIDS is quickly becoming a disease of people of color. The numbers in developing countries and on the African continent coupled with the numbers in Black America make this real. As a black man who has lived with HIV/AIDS for 10 years I’ve seen first hand the devastation in my community. AIDS is the leading cause of death for black men/women aged 25-44. Think about that. A whole generation of folks, wiped out in their prime. Here in the Commonwealth people of color make up only 12% of the state population, yet they account for over 50% of new infections. For women the news is even more frightening. Black women account for 1/2 of all new infection in women and they have a 39 times higher likelihood to be positive than white women. These statistics are unacceptable. That our President didn’t even mention HIV/AIDS in the U.S. in his State of the Union is shameful.
In Massachusetts, February 7th is also our annual Lobby Day at the State House in Boston. We need to hit the State House in full force. We must let our new Governor and the legislature know that HIV/AIDS is still a devastating disease in the Commonwealth and it needs to be funded at the highest level. Please join us in the fight.
