In This Issue

Republican Presidential contender Rick Perry thinks the mass murder of nine Black people in a Charleston South Carolina Church is an "accident". That shows you what he thinks about the lives of Black people. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham thinks the South Carolina mass murderer was "looking for Christians to kill." Really, is this a trend I've missed? Is there a storied tradition of burning down White churches, bombing them, lynching White men in front of them, or Black people going in to White churches, praying with them for an hour and then standing up and gunning them down?

We have a race problem in America and the lengths to we are willing to go to deny it are tragic, hateful and absurd. In an interview on The View, Senator Graham went so far as to say he has never been stopped by the police for no reason and thinks the reason President Obama and former Attorney General Eric holder have is because "they must have been in the wrong place". I am so glad Senator Graham is not racist. I'm afraid of what he might have said if he were. Increasingly, the only "right place" for Black men and boys, safe from violence is in the morgue.

Dylann Roof allegedly stood up and said, "You are raping our women and taking over the country. You must go." This is not about religion. It is not about gun control. It isn't even about mental illness. This is about the logical outcome of racism gone unchallenged.

This week, Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz and four other Republican elected officials in Texas, including Governor Greg Abbott, decided to donate campaign contributions raised from Earl Holt, the leader of a Missouri based White Supremacist group that issued a statement suggesting Roof had some "legitimate grievances" related to race. Mr. Holt has a long and very public history of racially charged positions. Senator Cruz knew who he was before they successfully solicited his financial support.

Senator Graham would have us believe "this is not who the people of South Carolina are," and he is probably mostly right about the extreme manifestations of hate and racism. But according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, there are no less than 19 hate groups based in South Carolina.

I am heartsick over what happened in Charleston, and Oakland, and Baltimore, and New York, and Sanford, FL, and Ferguson, and too many cities for me to name. It is bad enough that Black men and boys are being hunted down on our streets, and now the evil has come into our churches. But it is the hateful denial and distraction that gives me nightmares and makes it difficult for me to get out of bed in the morning.

Edmund Burke said: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," and "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."

Racism and hate are alive and well in America and they are killing us. We cannot survive unless we call it out for what it is. We cannot defend ourselves if we can't see the evil. And I don't mean just Black and brown people. The evil of hatred and racism is deadly to all of us.

In this issue we run the fifth in our six-part series about the first U.S. HIV Workforce Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs Survey, the largest study ever conducted of nonmedical personnel working with PLWHA in the United States. In it, we ask BTAN member and AAHU Fellow Marreo McDonald, of My Brother's Keeper in Mississippi, why it's important that nonmedical providers understand HIV science and treatment.

Any moment now, the Supreme Court will rule on King v. Burwell. If the court strikes down insurance subsidies, it will be up to state officials and Congress to help the more than six -million people who stand to lose their insurance. Our friends at Kaiser Health News report.

Anthony Roberts Jr., vice-chair and communications chair of the Young Black Gay Men's Leadership Initiative, talks about young people's role in ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic and how they can demonstrate leadership by helping organizations develop and execute social media strategies.

Our friends at Colorlines introduce us to "Living Color: Love is Revolutionary When You're Black & Transgender," the first in NBCBLK's "Love is Revolutionary" video series.

Finally, registration for the 2016 National African American MSM Leadership Conference on HIV/AIDS and Other Health Disparities is now open. We encourage you to sign up.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill