Statement: Why It's a Black Thang
A Rose by Another Name
By Phill Wilson
When we started a think tank to focus on AIDS in Black America seven years ago, we had one goal above all else: Convince Black people that AIDS was our problem. Our slogan -- “Our People, Our Problem, Our Solution” – is just a catchy way of saying the obvious: we can’t fix something until we at least acknowledge it’s broken. Well, we’ve come a long way, baby. And Black America’s increasing clarity of mission surrounding AIDS has never been more prominently displayed than it was last month, when tens of thousands of AIDS experts and advocates gathered in Toronto, Canada, for the International AIDS Conference. There, African American leaders took center stage to, as NAACP Chair Julian Bond put it, “accept ownership and fight [HIV/AIDS] with everything we have.” An historic contingent of Black leaders, most of whom represent traditional Black institutions, convened a press conference on Monday, Aug. 14 to launch a mass Black Mobilization. Each of these groups agreed to push AIDS to the top of their agendas and incorporate it into the fabric of their work. African Americans had finally made a statement to the world: In 2006, AIDS in America is a Black disease. These leaders get it, and they’re taking action as a result. But, sadly, there are still some out there missing the boat. In a Sept. 4 editorial the Boston Globe warned that "ghettoization of the AIDS epidemic weakens the fight against it." Having witnessed the outpouring of Black leadership in Toronto, the Globe saw not a community finally ready to stand up and fight for itself but one walking into a trap. And it articulated a perspective that has paralyzed Black folks for too long. By calling AIDS “a Black disease,” the Globe warned, we risk turning away allies within the community who fear heaping yet another stigma upon Black America. Certainly, that fear has kept some of our brightest minds and most influential players out of the struggle. With drugs, poverty and scores of other preventable but deadly health problems already plaguing Black neighborhoods, nobody wants to load more onto our plate. Moreover, the Globe's reasoning continued, by “labeling” AIDS a Black disease we give the powers-that-be an easy out. It's a Black thang, they'll think, we don't understand -- and don't have to. Or, worse, as University of Chicago political scientist Cathy Cohen told the Globe, calling AIDS Black gives white policy makers license to develop "some kind of cultural narrative that black people somehow brought it on themselves." The problem is the Globe describes exactly what both white and Black leaders have already spent the past 25 deadly years doing. Refusing to acknowledge the epidemic's vastly disproportionate impact on African Americans has done nothing to change that ugly reality. We tried putting our heads in the sand and not acknowledging the carnage unfolding in our neighborhoods. We tried convincing policy makers that this was everybody's problem, equally shared. We tried acting like it wasn't a Black disease -- and all that happened was the disease kept getting Blacker. We looked up and found that roughly half of all Americans living with AIDS and half all Americans getting HIV each year are Black. We found that three quarters of women getting it are Black, and that nearly half of Black gay and bisexual men may already be infected. We found Black people with HIV eight times more likely to die from the disease than whites. That's where not "labeling" AIDS a Black disease has got us. Furthermore, the Globe missed a crucial point. Black leaders were issuing a call to action to Black America. Others will hear the call and do whatever they will do. But Black America can no longer afford to worry about that. We can’t afford to trifle with the politics of America’s culture wars, whether they come from the left or the right. It is time for Black people to take ownership of the AIDS epidemic -- and responsibility for ending it. Individuals, traditional Black organizations and policymakers must all begin to hold ourselves accountable. Confronting the truth about AIDS is the only way to usher in this new era of accountability. As of January 2006, Washington was spending $200 million a day on the war in Iraq, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That means each month our war spending nearly triples what we spend on HIV/AIDS care in the United States all year. This is not acceptable, and our community must not allow it to continue. Federal funding for AIDS care is but one of many issues that our community must now take up – our challenges include reforming and properly funding Medicaid, holding the prison system accountable for the health of the Black men and women in its charge, demanding HIV prevention based on tested science rather than political ideology, and more. We are where we are with this epidemic because of denial and a lack of leadership. It didn’t have to be this way, and I wish it weren’t. But wishing it was not so is not the same as making it not so. I cringe every time I say, “AIDS in America is a Black disease” -- but not as much as I cringe every time I get a call from a Black teenager who just tested positive for HIV, or a Black woman who just found out she has AIDS, or someone letting me know that yet another of my brothers or sisters has died. To bring all of this to an end, first and foremost African Americans must acknowledge that AIDS is in fact our problem. We can’t fix what we won’t admit is broken.