News 2010
NEWS
Dems Suffer Without Young Voters of Color Who Stole the '08 Show
Reprinted from Colorlines
by Jamilah King
As Democrats are solemnly tallying up their losses, there's one inescapable fact about what the midterm electorate looked like: it was overwhelmingly whiter and older than 2008. The questions for President Obama now are what happened to the energetic base of young voters of color who thrusted him to power in 2008? And what will it take to bring them back into his party's fold before 2012?
According to exit polls’ early tabulation, people under the age of 29 accounted for only 11 percent of voters on Tuesday, a decrease from the 18 percent mark of 2008. More than 20 percent of voters who showed up at the polls this time were over the age of 65, a marked increase from the 15 percent who showed up on Election Day in 2008. These numbers may shift as more data becomes available, but the larger picture is clear: The youth wave of 2008 receded.
Read more: Dems Suffer Without Young Voters of Color Who Stole the '08 Show
NEWS
Injection Drug Use Fuels Black HIV Rates: Why Don't We Talk About It?
The "poster child" for HIV/AIDS has changed throughout the years. First the media focused on White gay men who became infected through sex; then came the five H's: Haitians, homosexuals, heroin addicts, hookers and hemophiliacs. Recently, emphasis has been placed on Black women infected heterosexually, ostensibly by "down-low" brothers. But though the risk posed to by heroin addiction has been clear from early on, the media rarely cover the role that injection drug use (IDU) has played in driving up Black HIV rates.
Injection drug use is the second leading cause of HIV infection for African American women and the third leading cause for African American men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC also estimates that IDU directly--through actual contact with contaminated needles--and indirectly, through sex with HIV-positive partners infected from IDU, accounts for more than one-third of AIDS cases in the United States.
Read more: Injection Drug Use Fuels Black HIV Rates: Why Don't We Talk About It?
IN THIS ISSUE
Injection Drugs, HIV and Black America; Assessing Midterm-Election Fallout
While Black America wasted years obsessed with a misplaced and unproven belief that the down low was fueling high HIV/AIDS rates among Black women, we failed to educate ourselves about a far more menacing threat: injection drug use (IDU). Since the early days of the epidemic, researchers have warned America that injecting illegal drugs or having sex with someone who has injected them is a significant risk factor for HIV/AIDS. In this issue Black AIDS Institute board member Angela Bronner-Helm examines the role that injection drugs play in spreading HIV/AIDS in Black communities.
Read more: Injection Drugs, HIV and Black America; Assessing Midterm-Election Fallout
Dallas>AIDS HIV Testing Tour
November 8-9, 2010
The Dallas County Health Department and the Black AIDS Institute have partnered to present the Dallas > AIDS Testing Tour. The tour will kick-off on Monday, November 8, 2010 in Dallas, Texas at El Centro College. Free HIV testing will be available throughout the tour which stops at local colleges including El Centro College, Paul Quinn College, Cedar Valley College and Mountain View College. AIDS Activist Marvelyn Brown will appear at each tour stop and share her story as a young Black woman living with HIV. As part of the Greater Than AIDS campaign, a national media and mobilization initiative managed by the Black AIDS Institute and the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Arkansas tour will call Black leaders to action and engage Black individuals and institutions in a community-wide effort to end the AIDS epidemic.
2002 Heroes in the Struggle Award Recipient Rep. Diane Watson Hosts South African Singer and HIV/AIDS Activist Yvonne Chaka Chaka at Final Public Forum Before Retiring
On Sunday, November 7, 2010, retiring Rep. Diane Watson, in the final public forum she will hold as a member of Congress, welcomes Yvonne Chaka Chaka to South Los Angeles. with a screening of the singer’s just-released documentary, “The Motherland Tour: A Journey of African Women.”
This event will take place at the Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship on Hobart Blvd. in South Los Angeles. The public is invited free of charge and will have an opportunity not only to view the hour-log film, but to meet and ask questions of Ms. Chaka Chaka and Congresswoman Watson, along with a panel of advocates who will discuss HIV/AIDS in America’s African Diaspora. The panel will include Black AIDS Institute President and CEO Phill Wilson, along with African American celebrities-cum-HIV activists Sheryl Lee Ralph* (of the Diva Foundation) and Bill Duke* (known for his acting and directorial roles in X-Men: The Last Stand and Sister Act II). Panelists will discuss similarities in combating HIV/AIDS in Africa and the United States. A reception will immediately follow.