(originally published 12/1/2009)
Black people- HIV/AIDS is killing our community. It stopped being a gay white man's disease, years ago. However, from the beginning it was killing Black people. Black women were passing the germ on to their newborn babies in breast milk, and they were dying. Black people in Africa continue to die with whole generations wiped out and children left without parents. The white gay community mobilized to deal with the situation while Black people fell through the cracks due to their own prejudices and ignorance, coupled with an inherently racist health system that continues today.
The HIV virus is not killing white America, so much anymore, but it is killing Black America....Let's bring it even closer....It is affecting Black straight America...through Black straight women, who refuse to hold their sexual partners accountable.
In Hamilton County, Cincinnati, Ohio....The number of Black women living with HIV/AIDS has doubled since 1998, according to the Ohio Department of Health. Across America, Black women, most of them straight, make up 61% of the newly diagnosed cases, while Black men make up 46% of all newly diagnosed cases.
The Black community in America is on target to be wiped out just like in Africa.
I've been writing and doing radio programs about this since the disease surfaced in 1984. I lost 11 friends in one year and 2 relatives before I stopped counting. I continue to write about it, and to talk about it, but it feels like I'm spitting into the wind and nobody is paying attention.
The fact of the matter is that.....
HIV is the number one cause of death for Black women between the ages of 25 and 34. The same is true for Black men between the ages of 35 and 44.
My people, you are dying because of fear, denial and ignorance. It's not about drug use and junkies sharing needles. That does happen, but primarily the cause is unprotected sex. Sex without condoms. A condom can stop the spread of the disease. No one is saying become celibate....just become sensible about what you do when you do decide to get your groove on.
Anyone who has sex with someone who refuses to use a condom is committing suicide...a long painful and stupid suicide.
As Black people we're funny. We talk about white people letting their dogs kiss them in the face. We worry about the germs from the dog's tongue. Yet, dog germs on your face won't kill you. But sex without a jimmy will and does over and over and over again. But nobody's talking about that.
Straight Black women in particular are in denial and are paying the price. Maintaining a jimmy-less relationship with their man when he comes out of prison is a big factor, especially since many black men engage in man on man sex while in jail, then take it home to their women.
Another major factor is men who routinely have sex with other men, yet don't consider themselves gay and still sleep with women. She ends up infected since male to female transmission is the easiest form of transmission.
Ohio Corrections tests all men going into the system, however they don't test them upon release.
The sad fact is that statistics show that most Black straight women are infected by their husbands and boyfriends.
So what can be done. Well, it's a matter of the entire community coming out the closet about the problem. And by this I mean, Black Churches, Black civil rights organizations, and Black people need to admit to themselves that it is not a white disease or a black disease....It is a disease that is colorblind and is killing us.
Everyone should be tested. I have been, a couple of times. It is a simple blood test that you can have done while you're having other blood work done. Your doctor can give you a card that you can carry in your wallet. The information just says...blood type..rh factor and HIV positive or negative.
People are living longer and longer because the medicine is finally catching up. HIV is no longer an instant death sentence.
So do yourself a favor on World AIDS Day, get tested and ask your partner to get tested, too.
.
Showing posts with label black women. Show all posts
Showing posts with label black women. Show all posts
1.05.2009
Monday Morning Meanderings
Blagojevich/Burris
Like it or not....and I don’t...Roland Burris was legally selected to replace Barack Obama as Senator. Blago is still the sitting Governor of Illinois. Until he is stripped of his powers, he has every right to appoint whoever...
However....I think Roland Burris is an idiot for allowing himself to be used like this. Bobby Rush has simply lost his mind....This fight is more than about whether one black man should replace another black man in the Senate.
-0-
Ann Coulter
Has reared her peroxided head again...must be book publishing time....Ya’ll need to stop calling her a drag queen, because that is an ugly insult to real drag queens...Some of the most beautiful people I know are drag queens....She is simply not pretty enough to even be considered for that auspicious designation.
-0-
Black Women Shrinking
Ran across an article last week says, black women are getting smaller. Not in my neighborhood. But you can read it here.
Another article says women in general are happiest when they wear a size 14 dress. Really?
Check it out.
-0-
Automatic Raise number 999
As Obama ponders giving us poor people some monetary relief, Congress gave itself a $4700.00 pay raise. They made it automatic several years ago, so that if by some chance they want NOT to take a raise, a new law has to be passed. Think of all the money saved if Congress forgoes its annual dip into the honeypot. I think their raise should be performance based, too....I want to sit on that board...
-0-
Muslims, the New Negroes
I hope that family put off the plane by AirTran, sues the hell out of the company. Still think we live in a post racial world, now that Obama is in Washington?
-0-
Gaza
Still fighting. I thought Bush promised us a cease-fire in that part of the world before he leaves office.
And why is Condi so happy these days...girl has been cheezin’ in every picture lately. Maybe she did vote for Obama. I don’t believe it for a minute. She’s still standing behind her guy.
Like it or not....and I don’t...Roland Burris was legally selected to replace Barack Obama as Senator. Blago is still the sitting Governor of Illinois. Until he is stripped of his powers, he has every right to appoint whoever...
However....I think Roland Burris is an idiot for allowing himself to be used like this. Bobby Rush has simply lost his mind....This fight is more than about whether one black man should replace another black man in the Senate.
-0-
Ann Coulter
Has reared her peroxided head again...must be book publishing time....Ya’ll need to stop calling her a drag queen, because that is an ugly insult to real drag queens...Some of the most beautiful people I know are drag queens....She is simply not pretty enough to even be considered for that auspicious designation.
-0-
Black Women Shrinking
Ran across an article last week says, black women are getting smaller. Not in my neighborhood. But you can read it here.
Another article says women in general are happiest when they wear a size 14 dress. Really?
Check it out.
-0-
Automatic Raise number 999
As Obama ponders giving us poor people some monetary relief, Congress gave itself a $4700.00 pay raise. They made it automatic several years ago, so that if by some chance they want NOT to take a raise, a new law has to be passed. Think of all the money saved if Congress forgoes its annual dip into the honeypot. I think their raise should be performance based, too....I want to sit on that board...
-0-
Muslims, the New Negroes
I hope that family put off the plane by AirTran, sues the hell out of the company. Still think we live in a post racial world, now that Obama is in Washington?
-0-
Gaza
Still fighting. I thought Bush promised us a cease-fire in that part of the world before he leaves office.
And why is Condi so happy these days...girl has been cheezin’ in every picture lately. Maybe she did vote for Obama. I don’t believe it for a minute. She’s still standing behind her guy.
12.01.2008
World AIDS Day
Did you know that if black Americans, all 13% of us, were a separate country, that our country would rank 16th in the world in HIV/AIDS infections? African Americans represent 49% of all new infections worldwide, according to the Center for Disease Control.
Did you know that black women in America between the ages of 25 and 49, are the group at highest risk for contracting AIDS?
Did you know that black women are infected primarily through their heterosexual partners...men who sleep with other men?
Today is World AIDs Day....the world has 33 million cases of infection, more than 70% of it happening in sub Saharan Africa.
Black AIDS Day is February 7th.....Educate yourself...for your own protection...I say this as someone who has lost too many friends and a couple of relatives to this vicious virus..
Did you know that black women in America between the ages of 25 and 49, are the group at highest risk for contracting AIDS?
Did you know that black women are infected primarily through their heterosexual partners...men who sleep with other men?
Today is World AIDs Day....the world has 33 million cases of infection, more than 70% of it happening in sub Saharan Africa.
Black AIDS Day is February 7th.....Educate yourself...for your own protection...I say this as someone who has lost too many friends and a couple of relatives to this vicious virus..
11.29.2008
Black women, Black Church and Down-lo Men
Are apparently to blame for the defeat of proposition 8 in California, according to New York Times Op-ed columnist, Charles M. Blow. Prop 8, for those of you who don’t know, is the law passed in California banning gay marriage.
Following the vote on election day, white gays and others erroneously faulted blacks for the vote after exit polls showed that 70% of blacks favored the ban. Subsequent reports however, showed that blacks actually made up a very small part of the coalition of voters who voted to ban gay marriage, for which white gays, who turned violent against black gays, during their demonstrations post election day, indiscriminately tossing around the N-word, have yet to apologize.
In his piece today, Blow did a closer look at the situation and came up with some interesting reasons as to why blacks, overall, don’t favor gay marriage. You can read his article here.
To briefly summarize Mr. Blow, the LGBT community should target black women, if they want to change the community mind set against homosexual marriage. His reasoning is that black women overwhelmingly outnumber black men when it comes to voting and going to church. The black church, Blow reasons, is the cause of conservative thinking among black women. So in Blow's opinion, white gays should target black women.
This conservative mind set is the main cause of homophobia within the community. Blow also states that since black women have trouble finding and keeping a man, they are probably not really happy with men marrying other men. In other words, black women don’t like competition. He also sights black women anger with black men who date and marry white women three times more than black women marry white men. Going outside the race for nooky has long been a thorn in the side of black women, according to Mr. Blow.
Blow also notes that black women’s anger is another reason why men who are on the down-lo, don’t want to discuss it with their female sex partners. This lack of communication is the reason behind the growing number of straight black women who are contracting the HIV/AIDs virus.
Blow concluded that white gays need to make the argument one about health rather than sexuality or civil rights, because basically when it comes to black men, the church and white women, black women don’t want to hear it.
Following the vote on election day, white gays and others erroneously faulted blacks for the vote after exit polls showed that 70% of blacks favored the ban. Subsequent reports however, showed that blacks actually made up a very small part of the coalition of voters who voted to ban gay marriage, for which white gays, who turned violent against black gays, during their demonstrations post election day, indiscriminately tossing around the N-word, have yet to apologize.
In his piece today, Blow did a closer look at the situation and came up with some interesting reasons as to why blacks, overall, don’t favor gay marriage. You can read his article here.
To briefly summarize Mr. Blow, the LGBT community should target black women, if they want to change the community mind set against homosexual marriage. His reasoning is that black women overwhelmingly outnumber black men when it comes to voting and going to church. The black church, Blow reasons, is the cause of conservative thinking among black women. So in Blow's opinion, white gays should target black women.
This conservative mind set is the main cause of homophobia within the community. Blow also states that since black women have trouble finding and keeping a man, they are probably not really happy with men marrying other men. In other words, black women don’t like competition. He also sights black women anger with black men who date and marry white women three times more than black women marry white men. Going outside the race for nooky has long been a thorn in the side of black women, according to Mr. Blow.
Blow also notes that black women’s anger is another reason why men who are on the down-lo, don’t want to discuss it with their female sex partners. This lack of communication is the reason behind the growing number of straight black women who are contracting the HIV/AIDs virus.
Blow concluded that white gays need to make the argument one about health rather than sexuality or civil rights, because basically when it comes to black men, the church and white women, black women don’t want to hear it.
9.03.2008
Boobs and a Working V-Jay-Jay
I don’t care how you dress it up.... a pig with lipstick and makeup...is still just a pig. Governor Sarah Palin is nothing more than an old white guy republican in a dress. She’s got boobs and obviously her plumbing is functioning...but it still won’t make me vote for her. GOP feminist is still an oxymoron.
She and McCain are running on a platform that codifies bigotry and discrimination with promises to make it part of the Constitution. They could draft the late great Barbara Jordan as McCain’s running mate and I still wouldn’t support this party or this platform.
The issues haven’t changed....it’s still the economy....job loss...inflation...lack of health care...the rape of social security....immigration.....our conflicted educational system.....equal pay and real childcare for working mothers....it’s about choice for women....it’s about the on going second class citizenship of lesbians, gays and transgendered people. Sarah Palin is not addressing the issues...none of the speakers are addressing the issues...just mounting attack after attack after attack...Peripheral bullshit...tossed by the ton....cover up...ignore and maybe win an election because people aren’t paying attention.
I don’t care if her daughter is pregnant...I do care about her refusal to recognize that young people need sex education. And I know that when the kids are black or minority or poor, the conversation coming from her party about unwanted pregnancies takes an ugly turn. The family privacy that she demands is nonexistent if you’re not a card carrying member of the right winged conservative GOP.
The only time this party becomes compassionately conservative is during election years, like now.
The real deal is that the party in power is hers...the 80% increase in spending over just the past four years...the multi trillion dollar deficit...the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan...the assault on the constitution and our civil rights via the Patriot Act....the lack of oversight of companies like KBR and Blackwater....the refusal to do anything about the energy crisis until now.....all of this is in Governor Palin’s lap and no amount of bamboozlement is going to change that.
Mitt “max headroom” Romney blamed the liberal government for all the current problems that the GOP is attempting to run away from. Well, it’s like Pogo said....”we has seen the enemy and it is us.” The government is republican...If the GOP can’t be straight about that...how can we believe they are going to change, ever. Judging from how many times I’ve heard the word “change” over the past couple of days, If I didn’t know better, I would say that McCain and company came up with it instead of Obama.
John McCain was an attractive candidate when he was a centrist in his party. His desperate thirst for power has pushed him farther and farther to the right, to the point that I doubt anyone outside of the 28% who think Bush is doing a good job will support him.
He chose a woman for his ticket for the basest of reasons...to deflect attention away from him and his right turn to mediocrity....As I said before, a pig in a poke....is just a pig in a poke.. Sarah Palin is a sharped tongued hockey mom who likens herself to a pit bull...Okay, I’ll buy that....But I don’t think the country is going to buy her act....her past politics of secessionism...her off the wall interpretation of religion...her desire to supplant science in favor of creationism...
She is being used by the boys....they want to keep power and they are willing to sacrifice her to do it...
She may pick up a few confused white women but I don’t think sistas want to hear it...statistics have shown in the past couple of elections...it's not just women in general...it's black women who more than likely, make the difference..
We shall see..Can’t wait for her first news conference...
She and McCain are running on a platform that codifies bigotry and discrimination with promises to make it part of the Constitution. They could draft the late great Barbara Jordan as McCain’s running mate and I still wouldn’t support this party or this platform.
The issues haven’t changed....it’s still the economy....job loss...inflation...lack of health care...the rape of social security....immigration.....our conflicted educational system.....equal pay and real childcare for working mothers....it’s about choice for women....it’s about the on going second class citizenship of lesbians, gays and transgendered people. Sarah Palin is not addressing the issues...none of the speakers are addressing the issues...just mounting attack after attack after attack...Peripheral bullshit...tossed by the ton....cover up...ignore and maybe win an election because people aren’t paying attention.
I don’t care if her daughter is pregnant...I do care about her refusal to recognize that young people need sex education. And I know that when the kids are black or minority or poor, the conversation coming from her party about unwanted pregnancies takes an ugly turn. The family privacy that she demands is nonexistent if you’re not a card carrying member of the right winged conservative GOP.
The only time this party becomes compassionately conservative is during election years, like now.
The real deal is that the party in power is hers...the 80% increase in spending over just the past four years...the multi trillion dollar deficit...the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan...the assault on the constitution and our civil rights via the Patriot Act....the lack of oversight of companies like KBR and Blackwater....the refusal to do anything about the energy crisis until now.....all of this is in Governor Palin’s lap and no amount of bamboozlement is going to change that.
Mitt “max headroom” Romney blamed the liberal government for all the current problems that the GOP is attempting to run away from. Well, it’s like Pogo said....”we has seen the enemy and it is us.” The government is republican...If the GOP can’t be straight about that...how can we believe they are going to change, ever. Judging from how many times I’ve heard the word “change” over the past couple of days, If I didn’t know better, I would say that McCain and company came up with it instead of Obama.
John McCain was an attractive candidate when he was a centrist in his party. His desperate thirst for power has pushed him farther and farther to the right, to the point that I doubt anyone outside of the 28% who think Bush is doing a good job will support him.
He chose a woman for his ticket for the basest of reasons...to deflect attention away from him and his right turn to mediocrity....As I said before, a pig in a poke....is just a pig in a poke.. Sarah Palin is a sharped tongued hockey mom who likens herself to a pit bull...Okay, I’ll buy that....But I don’t think the country is going to buy her act....her past politics of secessionism...her off the wall interpretation of religion...her desire to supplant science in favor of creationism...
She is being used by the boys....they want to keep power and they are willing to sacrifice her to do it...
She may pick up a few confused white women but I don’t think sistas want to hear it...statistics have shown in the past couple of elections...it's not just women in general...it's black women who more than likely, make the difference..
We shall see..Can’t wait for her first news conference...
1.01.2008
When Tomorrow Looks Like Yesterday
2008. Happy New Year to all of you paying attention. I’ve just walked through the door, into the twilight of my fifth decade on this planet. Still kicking, still feeling pretty optimistic about life in general.
Still paying attention to the happenings of the world around me.....the upcoming presidential elections here in this country....the assassination of Benizar Bhutto, may she find peace....the latest nuclear petulance out of South Korea....the continued ignorance and futility out of Washington.
Iowa caucuses in two days and if you listen to the media, all of the candidates are in closing arguments, in an attempt to seal the deal for themselves.
It’s a two man race in the GOP...that’s the “gay old party” for those of you who don’t know what GOP stands for....It used to mean “grand old party.” But the name has changed to accommodate all of the righteous old guys who keep falling out of the closet away from Jesus and the right leaning moral majority.
Preacher Huckabee is slugging it out with Mormon Mitt... but neither is charting new ground....just plowing the same old fields of pseudo hypocritical righteousness trying to out religious the other.
Fred Thompson seems to have fallen by the wayside. I guess he’s still in it for awhile since they’ve promoted Jack McCoy on Law and Order and taken away his day gig. Maybe he can come back as a judge who’s running for president on TV.
Rudy is busy too. He’s working hard to justify the latest group of skeletons popping out of his closet. He seems to have written off Iowa, instead concentrating his attention on New Hampshire.
The media says it’s a dead heat on the Democratic side with Obama slightly ahead of Clinton and Edwards, or vice versa, depending on the poll.
I’m not real excited about the Democrats either. I’m still not hearing anything new. Obama keeps talking about real change and I’m all for that, but is the change that he’s talking about merely changing a black man for a white man in the White House?
Alright, already, I know he is against the war in Iraq...Tell me something else. Tell me about social security...tell me about health care...tell me about ending violence in the streets...tell me about getting rid of guns...tell me about improving education.....tell me about civil rights for all people, not just rich people or straight people or Christians.
The middle class needs tax relief, too. America needs an end to the devastating voodoo economics of the Reagan era. Trickle down economics has never worked and it never will.
All of the people who support this economics plan need to understand that this is merely debt deferment. Your kids are screwed, period. They are dead and buried before they even get out into the world thanks to the past years of tax relief for corporations and the rich one percent of America. We, as Americans owe our collective soul to the banks of China. I don’t want to be around when they call that loan.
How about outlawing lobbyists, permanently. What’s the point of advertising by drug manufacturers? Wouldn’t it be better if that big advertising budget were used to develop new and better medications?
America needs to come to grips with AIDS. Is that in Obama’s health plan? Especially since fully fifty percent of all new cases of HIV infection are straight black women?
Hey Hillary, I haven’t forgotten you. Is the plight of infected black women in your health budget? If the polls are right, you’re favored by black women two to one over Obama. Are you going to take care of your constituency?
Hillary Clinton, like Obama, is the face of change. She is a woman. That is the biggest thing going her. She is not a man. On the face, she is not the status quo. But is that true? She went along with Bush on Iraq. Her health care plan seems a retread of the one that failed when her husband was in charge.
The problem that I have with her is that she has been in Congress and the White House and still feels like the old way of doing things despite her gender. As much as I want to, I can’t get excited about her.
I want someone to talk about really cutting the waste in government...no more automatic raises until lawmakers fix this mess. Absolutely no more pork barrel projects until we have a budget surplus in Washington.
I want the Patriot Act repealed. I want Homeland Security dismantled. It’s a joke on the American people. I want checks and balances restored between government branches.
I want the IRS retired. How about a national sales tax....a user tax...the bigger the item, the larger the tax.....same for everybody.....that way...you could put up a chart for all to see and read what the tax penalty is, instead of the way it is now. ....Or I would be okay with an across the board ten percent....Everyone pays ten percent of their yearly earnings...Kind of like tithing to your church, only it’s to the government....Going even further....take the ten percent and divide it in half with part going to the feds, the rest going to the state where you live.
Bottom line, I want more than I’m hearing. The candidates, none of them, have come close to speaking to the important stuff. So let’s knock off the attack rhetoric and get down to business.
The candidate who does that, will get my vote.
And trust me...........Ron Paul is not the answer!
Still paying attention to the happenings of the world around me.....the upcoming presidential elections here in this country....the assassination of Benizar Bhutto, may she find peace....the latest nuclear petulance out of South Korea....the continued ignorance and futility out of Washington.
Iowa caucuses in two days and if you listen to the media, all of the candidates are in closing arguments, in an attempt to seal the deal for themselves.
It’s a two man race in the GOP...that’s the “gay old party” for those of you who don’t know what GOP stands for....It used to mean “grand old party.” But the name has changed to accommodate all of the righteous old guys who keep falling out of the closet away from Jesus and the right leaning moral majority.
Preacher Huckabee is slugging it out with Mormon Mitt... but neither is charting new ground....just plowing the same old fields of pseudo hypocritical righteousness trying to out religious the other.
Fred Thompson seems to have fallen by the wayside. I guess he’s still in it for awhile since they’ve promoted Jack McCoy on Law and Order and taken away his day gig. Maybe he can come back as a judge who’s running for president on TV.
Rudy is busy too. He’s working hard to justify the latest group of skeletons popping out of his closet. He seems to have written off Iowa, instead concentrating his attention on New Hampshire.
The media says it’s a dead heat on the Democratic side with Obama slightly ahead of Clinton and Edwards, or vice versa, depending on the poll.
I’m not real excited about the Democrats either. I’m still not hearing anything new. Obama keeps talking about real change and I’m all for that, but is the change that he’s talking about merely changing a black man for a white man in the White House?
Alright, already, I know he is against the war in Iraq...Tell me something else. Tell me about social security...tell me about health care...tell me about ending violence in the streets...tell me about getting rid of guns...tell me about improving education.....tell me about civil rights for all people, not just rich people or straight people or Christians.
The middle class needs tax relief, too. America needs an end to the devastating voodoo economics of the Reagan era. Trickle down economics has never worked and it never will.
All of the people who support this economics plan need to understand that this is merely debt deferment. Your kids are screwed, period. They are dead and buried before they even get out into the world thanks to the past years of tax relief for corporations and the rich one percent of America. We, as Americans owe our collective soul to the banks of China. I don’t want to be around when they call that loan.
How about outlawing lobbyists, permanently. What’s the point of advertising by drug manufacturers? Wouldn’t it be better if that big advertising budget were used to develop new and better medications?
America needs to come to grips with AIDS. Is that in Obama’s health plan? Especially since fully fifty percent of all new cases of HIV infection are straight black women?
Hey Hillary, I haven’t forgotten you. Is the plight of infected black women in your health budget? If the polls are right, you’re favored by black women two to one over Obama. Are you going to take care of your constituency?
Hillary Clinton, like Obama, is the face of change. She is a woman. That is the biggest thing going her. She is not a man. On the face, she is not the status quo. But is that true? She went along with Bush on Iraq. Her health care plan seems a retread of the one that failed when her husband was in charge.
The problem that I have with her is that she has been in Congress and the White House and still feels like the old way of doing things despite her gender. As much as I want to, I can’t get excited about her.
I want someone to talk about really cutting the waste in government...no more automatic raises until lawmakers fix this mess. Absolutely no more pork barrel projects until we have a budget surplus in Washington.
I want the Patriot Act repealed. I want Homeland Security dismantled. It’s a joke on the American people. I want checks and balances restored between government branches.
I want the IRS retired. How about a national sales tax....a user tax...the bigger the item, the larger the tax.....same for everybody.....that way...you could put up a chart for all to see and read what the tax penalty is, instead of the way it is now. ....Or I would be okay with an across the board ten percent....Everyone pays ten percent of their yearly earnings...Kind of like tithing to your church, only it’s to the government....Going even further....take the ten percent and divide it in half with part going to the feds, the rest going to the state where you live.
Bottom line, I want more than I’m hearing. The candidates, none of them, have come close to speaking to the important stuff. So let’s knock off the attack rhetoric and get down to business.
The candidate who does that, will get my vote.
And trust me...........Ron Paul is not the answer!
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