Vanessa Williams: Actress, Activist
It's still a mystery to me how I met Phill Wilson, the founder and president of the Black AIDS Institute. But Phill's the kind of leader who makes you want to please him. It's like, "Whatever you ask of me . . . " He's a testament to knowledge, being responsible for your health and being a survivor--he's been living with HIV/AIDS for 30 years plus. To have Phill survive AIDS when it was taking people out is really inspiring, and it makes me want to do whatever I can.
Phill approached me to get Black Hollywood involved to give back to the community. People follow us on Twitter or whatever else because they liked whatever production we were in, and I like using that connection to be of service. It's like the campaign says: We are greater than AIDS. Black people came through the Middle Passage; we came through slavery, Reconstruction; we came through Jim Crow and civil rights. We can defeat this. Now that it's our disease, it's our responsibility.
This summer there's going to be a big International AIDS Conference in Washington, D.C. We're making sure that our issues as a Black community are heard, because our concerns are always different when we get a disease, and the health care and treatment happen at a slower rate. But here's the great news: We can end this! We have the tools, and there are so many campaigns that the Black AIDS Institute has implemented.
Here are five ways you can get involved:
First, join the Give 1 Million campaign. One million people give one dollar. That's not too much to ask, even in these pressed economic times.
Second, make it your personal mission. Ask yourself: "What can I do?" Have a really serious conversation with everybody you know who is having sex.
Third, have the conversation with your own partner: "Let's have a policy that, until we promise each other that we're going to be exclusive, we've got to wear condoms." It's like, "I'm not trying to clock what your business is, but let's be safe. Let's be real about it." And that's an opportunity to really grow and step up to that conversation.
Fourth, get beyond the fear. As Americans, and certainly as African Americans, as Christians in the African American community, we've got all these issues around sex. It's as if nobody's having sex! And we pretend that we don't have a gay culture within our culture that consists of our brothers and cousins and nephews whom we love. So even if it's a conversation: "Hey brother, hey cousin, hey gay friend: Are you protecting yourself? Do you know your status?" Let's not act like we don't have to take care of ourselves and don't care about each other.
And fifth, be active. Get tested, and if you get the less-than-comfortable news that you have HIV, then immediately get treatment. The treatment is now preventative. The treatment is now the cure in many ways, because you're not going to be spreading it to anyone else in the community. That's how we knock it out.
As told to Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn, a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, author and documentary filmmaker.