Heroes In The Struggle

Julian Bond Speaks Out on Behalf of People Living with HIV/AIDS

By Vernon Smith

Heroes In The Struggle is honoring Julian Bond as an “Advocate” in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the African American Community from 6-10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 7 at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Purchase tickets here.

NAACP Chairman Julian Bond, doesn’t shy from talking about sex in public. He thinks more African Americans should do the same.

Bond said he believes that the black community’s reluctance to candidly discuss sex and, more specifically, homosexuality, is the greatest barrier to the prevention of HIV/AIDS.

“Every segment of the black community should overcome its fear and embarrassment,” he said.

A veteran civil rights advocate and former Georgia state representative and senator, Bond, 68, said he’s motivated to advocate on behalf of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS because many of them are rendered silent by the stigma attached to the disease and “suffer alone” as a result.

“I felt commanded to speak out simply because others were not,” he said.

At the start of the 2006 NAACP national convention, Bond, NAACP President Bruce Gordon and Vice-Chair Roslyn Brock got an HIV test to raise awareness about the importance of HIV testing and counseling, a move applauded by HIV/AIDS activists. Every African American, Bond said, must take ownership of AIDS and become more knowledgeable about the disease.

“There was a time when people thought that casual contact like a handshake would transmit AIDS from person A to Person B,” he said. “We know that’s not true; it’s never been true.”

Bond said African Americans, already confronting various social and economic issues, from poverty and joblessness to health disparities and high incarceration rates, must accept responsibility for the growing epidemic and make HIV/AIDS education and prevention a priority. Although African Americans comprise about 13 percent of the U.S. population, HIV/AIDS disproportionately affects the black community, NAACP officials note.

“It’s sometimes daunting to want to take on something else, but nonetheless we just have to do it,” he said.

Because the spread of HIV/AIDS is linked to factors such as drug addiction and poverty, Bond said community leaders and organizations like the NAACP must mobilize to insure “fair access” to healthcare.

“If you have an incarceration rate that is higher than that of the general population, and if drug addiction flourishes in your community…and you don’t have fair access to treatment, then obviously, it’s [HIV/AIDS] going to get worse,” he said.

Since 2006, when the NAACP and other national organizations pledged to make HIV/AIDS part of the fabric of their work, Bond said they have suffered reductions in financial and staff resources. He said the NAACP remains committed to HIV/AIDS education, prevention, outreach and treatment, and he hopes other groups will do the same.

“Our ability to keep our promises has been limited but it didn’t disappear,” he said. “We still soldier on even though we lost some staff people.”

Bond said the high infection rate among black women and youths should be a wake-up call. Black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control, account for nearly two-thirds of newly-diagnosed HIV infections, with AIDS being the leading cause of death for Black women 25-34. Among American youth, Blacks account for nearly 70 percent of the new cases.

“These are our brothers, our sisters, our fathers, our mothers,” Bond said. “And the fact that it now afflicts more women than any other segment of our society, ought to at least say to those people who still persist in thinking this is a gay disease, that that’s just wrong…It affects all of us.”

Bond said it will take an enormous effort by a great number of people – individuals, faith leaders, policy makers and scientists to eradicate HIV/AIDS from black America.

“It’s a big, big struggle. No one group alone can solve it...There is something here for everybody to do. What we all have to do is find out what fits us.”

Willis Edwards, NAACP national board member and vice chair of the NAACP’s HIV/AIDS subcommittee, praised Bond for challenging the organization to confront the epidemic’s realities and for his willingness to speak out about HIV/AIDS when other black community leaders have been reluctant to do so. He cited Bond’s numerous appeals for African Americans to get screened for HIV, his speeches and published columns urging compassion and responsibility.

“In the black community, we have had a hard time having our leaders step up to the plate,” said Edwards, who has AIDS. “What [Bond] has essentially done is brought the NAACP to another level to understand the whole issue of HIV. He’s been a leader within the African American community, urging other leaders to step up to the plate to help eradicate this disease.”

Vernon Smith is a freelance writer based in the Dallas, Texas area.