Link
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. policies and cash may be leading the fight against AIDS globally, but they have neglected the epidemic among black Americans, the Black AIDS Institute said in a report released on Tuesday.
While blacks account for one in eight people in the United States, half of all Americans infected with HIV are black, the report found.
"We are 30 percent of the new cases among gay men, 40 percent of the new cases among men in general, 60 percent of the cases among women and 70 percent of the new cases among youth," Black AIDS Institute CEO Phill Wilson told reporters in a telephone briefing.
"Yet ... the U.S. response to AIDS in black America stands in sharp contrast to the international response to the epidemic overseas," he added.
Al Sharpton, a prominent activist and founder of the National Action Network, agreed.
"U.S. policy makers seem to be much more interested in the epidemic in Botswana than the epidemic in Louisiana. This is an unnecessary and deadly choice. Both need urgent attention," Sharpton said.
Dr. Helene Gayle, former head of AIDS for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now president of the poverty-fighting charity CARE, said many HIV infected blacks are not in traditional high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex workers.
"The federal government's approach to the epidemic in black America is fundamentally flawed," Gayle said. This includes both a lack of funding and poor targeting of the money, she said.
EMPOWERMENT AND EDUCATION
Approaches that would work among black Americans include policies to empower women. "Black women often cannot insist on abstinence or the use of condoms for fear of violence or other emotional trauma," Gayle said.
Black American women are 23 times more likely than white women to become infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes AIDS, the report found.
A lack of education works against young people, who are often powerless and in sexual relationships with older people, who can infect them, Gayle said. Wider testing for HIV among blacks is also essential, the report stressed.
And better prevention messages that use language that will reach drug users, youths and men who have sex with men are key.
"We have focused on abstinence-only (methods) even though they don't work in our community," Wilson said.
Information about condom use is important, Wilson said. "We also need to look at needle exchange," he said -- noting that although needle exchange programs work to reduce HIV transmission while doing nothing to encourage drug use, they are frowned upon by the federal government.
Education campaigns can battle myths about disease transmission, as well as conspiracy theories that cause many blacks to mistrust the medical system, Wilson said.
The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, will spend $48 billion over the next five years to help treat and prevent AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 15 targeted countries and is considered a showpiece of George W. Bush's presidency.
"More black Americans are infected with HIV than the total populations of people living with HIV in seven of the 15 countries served by PEPFAR," Wilson said.
"Were black America a separate country, it would elicit major concern and extensive assistance from the U.S. government. Instead, the national response to AIDS among black Americans has been lethargic and often neglectful."
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
When The Man is One of Us
This is a great perspective on why Black America (particularly "the Black Caucus") may not be ready for a Black President. Check out theroot.com more often for some great insight into culture, politics, and news.
By Jack White | TheRoot.com
Sure, Jesse is an old fool who doesn't know how to act. But his latest gaffe shows how none of us is really ready for this moment.
July 10, 2008--On one level, it is easy to dismiss the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.'s crudely worded metaphorical threat to castrate Barack Obama for supposedly talking down to black people as the raving of an increasingly irrelevant, former big shot suffused with resentment at the rising star who pushed him off stage.
That, after all, is the sort of talk we'd expect from a lynch mob, not a civil rights leader who does not seem to realize that the times have passed him by. Even his son and namesake, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., agrees that his dad is doing more harm these days than good. Pronouncing himself outraged and disappointed by his father's ugly words about Obama, Jackson Jr. issued a statement that, in effect, ordered dear old dad to "keep hope alive" and shut up.
That's good advice, and one can only hope that Jackson Sr. accepts it. But in a deeper sense, his stunningly inappropriate comments symbolize the social, political and psychological vertigo that all of us, and especially black Americans, are experiencing because of Obama's success. We are all, including Obama, in a place we never really thought we would be, and it has knocked us off our feet. We don't know how to act. We don't have a plan. We're searching for our equilibrium. And until we regain our footing, we can expect all sorts of bizarre behavior from people who ought to know better. Hold on to your hat.
We haven't really been in a place this confusing since 1954, when the NAACP's crusade against segregation culminated in the Brown vs. Board decision and the walls came tumbling down. It's fair to say that we were so focused on winning that fight that we weren't prepared for the victory or its aftermath. We've spent nearly 60 years since then trying to figure out what kind of relationship we want to have with America and with each other. For the most part, we, like Jackson Sr., have seen ourselves as outsiders battling for justice and a seat at the table. Our default has been to protest. And while that mindset has served us well, it has, in a flash, been made damn near obsolete by the prospect, even the likelihood, that one of us may soon become the most powerful man in the world. If that happens, how can we seriously argue that we're being held back by anything but the limits we place on ourselves?
That, it seems to me, accounts in part for the frustration some of us are feeling by what we interpret as Obama's move to the center. We are simply not accustomed to one of our own playing real, power politics. Some of us see his call for an expansion of George Bush's half-hearted commitment to faith-based social programs as mere politics, what Jackson Sr. castigated as "talking down to black people." We explain Obama's support for the compromise Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Supreme Court's upholding of a citizen's right to bear arms as attempts to inoculate himself against Republican attacks.
And, of course, they are.
But they, like Obama's Father's Day speech urging black men to take more responsibility for their children, are more than political posturing. They represent the first stirrings of a new consensus that places more emphasis on a public discussion of personal responsibility than on protest, on publicly delving into our own shortcomings and dysfunctional behavior.
There's nothing new about this kind of self-examination, but in the past we've conducted it mainly in private, in barbershops and beauty parlors, and churches. We've bristled when whites in power like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, joined in the critique of, for example, our soaring rate of out-of-wedlock births. We've moaned about the negative consequences of washing dirty laundry in public. But such a self-protective mindset no longer makes sense because Obama is one of us, who has taken part in our private handwringing about the self-inflicted wounds that bedevil segments of the black community. He hasn't said anything most of us haven't heard or said at the dinner table. But now, because Obama is who he is, the whole world is listening in to the conversation.
The attention makes us uncomfortable and disoriented. So does the prospect that one of us might soon be in charge of trying to fix this mess instead of simply complaining about it.
We're not really ready for the day when The Man becomes a black man.
It's a dizzying idea that is going to take some getting used to. And until we do, we'll stumble about, like Jesse Jackson Sr., saying all kinds of crazy things as we slip and slide on the new paradigm.
Jack White is a former columnist with TIME magazine.
By Jack White | TheRoot.com
Sure, Jesse is an old fool who doesn't know how to act. But his latest gaffe shows how none of us is really ready for this moment.
July 10, 2008--On one level, it is easy to dismiss the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.'s crudely worded metaphorical threat to castrate Barack Obama for supposedly talking down to black people as the raving of an increasingly irrelevant, former big shot suffused with resentment at the rising star who pushed him off stage.
That, after all, is the sort of talk we'd expect from a lynch mob, not a civil rights leader who does not seem to realize that the times have passed him by. Even his son and namesake, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., agrees that his dad is doing more harm these days than good. Pronouncing himself outraged and disappointed by his father's ugly words about Obama, Jackson Jr. issued a statement that, in effect, ordered dear old dad to "keep hope alive" and shut up.
That's good advice, and one can only hope that Jackson Sr. accepts it. But in a deeper sense, his stunningly inappropriate comments symbolize the social, political and psychological vertigo that all of us, and especially black Americans, are experiencing because of Obama's success. We are all, including Obama, in a place we never really thought we would be, and it has knocked us off our feet. We don't know how to act. We don't have a plan. We're searching for our equilibrium. And until we regain our footing, we can expect all sorts of bizarre behavior from people who ought to know better. Hold on to your hat.
We haven't really been in a place this confusing since 1954, when the NAACP's crusade against segregation culminated in the Brown vs. Board decision and the walls came tumbling down. It's fair to say that we were so focused on winning that fight that we weren't prepared for the victory or its aftermath. We've spent nearly 60 years since then trying to figure out what kind of relationship we want to have with America and with each other. For the most part, we, like Jackson Sr., have seen ourselves as outsiders battling for justice and a seat at the table. Our default has been to protest. And while that mindset has served us well, it has, in a flash, been made damn near obsolete by the prospect, even the likelihood, that one of us may soon become the most powerful man in the world. If that happens, how can we seriously argue that we're being held back by anything but the limits we place on ourselves?
That, it seems to me, accounts in part for the frustration some of us are feeling by what we interpret as Obama's move to the center. We are simply not accustomed to one of our own playing real, power politics. Some of us see his call for an expansion of George Bush's half-hearted commitment to faith-based social programs as mere politics, what Jackson Sr. castigated as "talking down to black people." We explain Obama's support for the compromise Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Supreme Court's upholding of a citizen's right to bear arms as attempts to inoculate himself against Republican attacks.
And, of course, they are.
But they, like Obama's Father's Day speech urging black men to take more responsibility for their children, are more than political posturing. They represent the first stirrings of a new consensus that places more emphasis on a public discussion of personal responsibility than on protest, on publicly delving into our own shortcomings and dysfunctional behavior.
There's nothing new about this kind of self-examination, but in the past we've conducted it mainly in private, in barbershops and beauty parlors, and churches. We've bristled when whites in power like Daniel Patrick Moynihan, joined in the critique of, for example, our soaring rate of out-of-wedlock births. We've moaned about the negative consequences of washing dirty laundry in public. But such a self-protective mindset no longer makes sense because Obama is one of us, who has taken part in our private handwringing about the self-inflicted wounds that bedevil segments of the black community. He hasn't said anything most of us haven't heard or said at the dinner table. But now, because Obama is who he is, the whole world is listening in to the conversation.
The attention makes us uncomfortable and disoriented. So does the prospect that one of us might soon be in charge of trying to fix this mess instead of simply complaining about it.
We're not really ready for the day when The Man becomes a black man.
It's a dizzying idea that is going to take some getting used to. And until we do, we'll stumble about, like Jesse Jackson Sr., saying all kinds of crazy things as we slip and slide on the new paradigm.
Jack White is a former columnist with TIME magazine.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Summer Movie Fest
If you are ready for free "Family" movies, say yeahh!!!
Wehrenberg is offering first come first serve movies each Wednesday and Thursday for the following titles.
Not to be outdone, Regal Cinemas has the same promotion.
Regal St. Louis Mills Stadium 18
5555 St. Louis Mills Blvd. Hazelwood, MO 63042 314-227-5500
07/01/2008-07/02/2008 Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (G)
The Second Junglebook (PG)
07/08/2008-07/09/2008 Wallace And Gromit (G)
Hook (PG)
07/15/2008-07/16/2008 Muppets Take Manhattan (G)
Stuart Little (PG)
07/22/2008-07/23/2008 Everyone's Hero (G)
Bratz (PG)
07/29/2008-07/30/2008 Adventures Of Pipi Longstocking (G)
Alvin And The Chipmunks (PG)
08/05/2008-08/06/2008 Doogal (G)
Are We There Yet? (PG)
P.S. - Popcorn and Soda will cost you $9 plus tip.
Wehrenberg is offering first come first serve movies each Wednesday and Thursday for the following titles.
Not to be outdone, Regal Cinemas has the same promotion.
Regal St. Louis Mills Stadium 18
5555 St. Louis Mills Blvd. Hazelwood, MO 63042 314-227-5500
07/01/2008-07/02/2008 Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (G)
The Second Junglebook (PG)
07/08/2008-07/09/2008 Wallace And Gromit (G)
Hook (PG)
07/15/2008-07/16/2008 Muppets Take Manhattan (G)
Stuart Little (PG)
07/22/2008-07/23/2008 Everyone's Hero (G)
Bratz (PG)
07/29/2008-07/30/2008 Adventures Of Pipi Longstocking (G)
Alvin And The Chipmunks (PG)
08/05/2008-08/06/2008 Doogal (G)
Are We There Yet? (PG)
P.S. - Popcorn and Soda will cost you $9 plus tip.
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