End HIV Now -- Black HIV!
As a 16-year advocate for HIV/AIDS, my demand for our Commander in Chief is to make a commitment to end HIV now -- HIV in Black America! Just like we found Osama Bin Laden, we can find a cure for HIV; just like we saved the auto industry, we can save lives and families from being negatively affected by HIV/AIDS; and just like our ancestors fought for our right to vote, we are the “ancestors” who need to hold politicians accountable for the cure for HIV/AIDS.
For many years my HIV/AIDS advocacy was not aligned for clear governmental accountability. In 2003 the Republican Bush administration introduced the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In 2010 the Obama Administration introduced the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. With this backdrop this election is more personal to me than any other election in my 35 years of existence. I see my vote as a way to ensure that the 1.2 million people who are currently living with HIV in America, of whom more than half are BLACK, are granted and ensured access to the best quality and healthiest life that this world has to offer.
In 2012, Secretary Hilary Clinton introduced the idea of an AIDS-free generation. But that generation still does not look like it will be a reality for young Black MSM, Black females or Black heterosexual males, who thus far have not advocated for themselves. If we were to simply add the word Black to the three primary goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy it would deliver an almost unbelievable challenge:
Reduce Black HIV incidence
- Increase Black people's access to care and optimize Black health outcomes
- Reduce Black HIV-related health disparities
Right now, health disparities face BLACK America. While America has a cold, Black America is having a heart attack. Research has found that BLACKS are less likely to adhere to their HIV meds compared to other people living with HIV/AIDS. Black people have a legitimate, historical distrust for the medical community (think: Tuskegee) and federal responses to our natural disasters. HIV is our medical Hurricane Katrina. If politicians want to talk about the 47 percent, they need to construct policies that will end at least 47 percent of new HIV infections, now!
After writing HIV goals from a Black perspective, when I review the facts stated by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, “Black Americans have been disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS since the epidemic's beginning, and that disparity has deepened over time,” it makes me question myself as a Black man. If I am in any way flinching from calling the HIV kettle BLACK, then I am not being realistic. How can I properly speak to our president's actions, if I am not ready to show him the hard facts about this disease?
So again I state my truth to you, and that truth is that I demand that we END HIV NOW and that END has to first address how to end HIV in BLACK America.
Justin Wooley is a BTAN fellow and director of Ryan White Part B and community outreach at the Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center in Chicago.