This
week's
topic:		 Last year,(1997) it was reported that 43% of all reported AIDS cases were African Americans. How does the so-called African American community's "code of silence" continue to prevent openly addressing the enormous spread of AIDS in the Black Community?



Submit Date: 14 APR 1999
Name:
Email: dainfotrac
Response: I response to the question regarding the code of silence in the African American community we first need to ask the question , why is the silence in the African American community regarding the Hiv aids. This problem is very serious. We need to educate more land more. We can start in our communities with educating children, adolescents, parents, grandparents, and others. College professors, we need to plant a serious seed inthe minds of the young college students but incorporating the subject into the lesson if its not already being done. Concerned ones, we need to bind together and encourage young people to be tested for this dreadful disease. We need to try and change the thought pattern of most people who are afraid to be tested. I must sya, I had a conversation with a married women abut the virus and stressed the need to educate and be tested. She told me she was concerned about the single women out here. She was glad she was married and didn't have to worry about contracting the virus. I educated her to the fact that her husband could be having an affair with one or more of these single women who could be carring the virus. She stopped cold in her tracks. The conversation ceased after my statement. This is the type of thinking some of us have and we have got to change this kind of thinking. If there is someone out there who would like to band together and share ways to combat the silence in our communities, you may contact me at my email address. Not only can we help ourselves, we should go to congress for support.


Submit Date: 1 APR 1999
Name: Darnell Kirby
Email: dkirby7694@apl.com
Response: WE as a people are enitrely to quiet when it comes to topics such as this in our community. It seems as-though things like this don't even exist . But they do , and if we continue to be quiet about it The term Keeping It Real will be come a very sick very quick.


Submit Date: 31 MAR 1999
Name: raye
Email: ccacjones @aol.com
Response: I am an artist who uses the stage to stimulate both the imagination and commonly held beliefs in audiences. My colleague and I co-wrote a performance piece titled Secrets & Silence to bring attention to the African American's communities varied responses to AIDs. The work combines film, original musical composition, personal stories and dance. The show premiered during AIDs awareness month and we have been booked for performances at several colleges. My point is that the voice of the artist can be powerful in counter hegemony in the U.S. the dialogue can be opened if we dare to purge ourselves. We are silent on life issues that extend well beyond AIDs. We attempt to address a few in this work. Culturally, we are complex and in order to address issues of wellness we must first explore those culture based practices that keep us silent from childhood.Just a few thoughts. Peace and love.


Submit Date: 4 DEC 1998
Name: may
Email: "mhodgkin@fuse.net
Response: Wake up BLACK people !!!! They no longer where the WHITE sheets.


Submit Date: 25 NOV 1998
Name:
Email: "nubianqt1@aol.com
Response: Its no secret that AIDS is a result of the HIV virus - a genetically engineered virus manufactured here in the US (there is documentation to support this fact). And just like co-intelpro, there is a modern day war waging against people of African decent every where. Look at the documentation of AIDS cases on the continent in relationship to small pox vaccinations. There is a direct correlation in the growth and spread of AIDS in these areas. Coincidence - some of you may say - but I refuse to be so naive (my black babies are dying every day). There is a conspiracy to kill off african people all over the planet and AIDS is just one means to that ends. What they didnt count on, is that, it would spread at such an alarming rate to other communities. But one thing I have learned is that the world powers dont mind killing a few of their own in order to increase their gains. Just this week the london news reported that 2/3 (yes 66%) of all AIDS cases are in "Sub-Saharan" Africa. But even worse than that - the was the statement t that drugs are too costly to make a difference in these countrys! So we ask ourself - what does cost of a drug have to do with how effective it will be? Why is the rate of AIDS dropping in this and other countrys while our sistas and brothers are fighting a germ warfare they most likely will loose? Black people - we need to get serious - they are trying to get rid of us and until we start looking at the facts (and stop bickering about opinions), educating ourselves and protecting our children there will be no hope. Our ancestors fought too hard and endured too much to ensure our survival - now is our turn...DO FOR SELF OR DIE!


Submit Date: 25 NOV 1998
Name: dino
Email: "aol.com
Response: The spread of aids in the Black Community. I feel this is important it needs to be reviewed. Once again some one have some form of percentage on who and what community is in danger of something. First blacks come in the bottom for education, next drugs and now Aids. Its a pattern can you not see why are we always the focus. Dodn't beleive everything you here history has shown us that we always get out of what ever situation they put us in. Some one brought up the question why are ther so many people of African background with Aids? I must say thet the aids academic is real but now they need some one put it on.


Submit Date: 24 NOV 1998
Name: danny walker
Email: "dwalker@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
Response: For those who do not agree with the statistics that have been published on the AIDS spread, well, there is more in USATODAy. There is another report of the spread of this disease worldwide. Now we can be critical of these stats. Or, we can totally ignore them. I don't know if they are true or not. However, I DON'T CARE. We, as a people, can't afford to NOT believe theses stats. My reasoning... Well, regardless of the info being true or not, doing something about is only a win win situation. My biggest fear is if it is true, that some of the views I am reading here are scary.


Submit Date: 21 NOV 1998
Name: Big Jimmy SlicK
Email: "Spanker@aol.com
Response: I am sick of being called a slave because I'm black, that is only one of the reasons why I'm a slave.People think that black poeple are obsessed with sex. Let me tell you a funny story about my sex life. One time I was Jimmy whacked in the ghetto and my mom brought me some cookies, she said do your homework son and then she left. The moral of this sotry is that Africans can be just as sexually active as white people. P.S. BLACK POWER!!


Submit Date: 21 NOV 1998
Name: QWAKU^-
Email: "RICKIE.ANDERSON@GTE.NET
Response: THERE IS NO CODE OF SILENCE, just hyperbole and bullsh--ting. There are a bunch of criminals playing games with the truth. There are three kinds of lies {LIES, DAMNED LIES & STATISTICS}. Lets put some meat on the table, where is your head --- The Center for Disease Control has consistently under totaled the number of IV drug cases as a AIDS group by nearly 40%, check out the book DEATH RUSH, they have continued to look at AIDS as a venereal disease. We have been lied to about the true nature of AIDS. Did you know that billions have been generated from the AIDS test which is based on the theory that HIV causes AIDS and has generated approx. 15 to 40% false-positives in the U.S. alone. Why is it the incubation period has grown from 18 months to fifteen years $$$$$$ It will soon reach a point near natural life. So the medical profession will pimp you for your natural life. ( . ) The 120 Billion a year war on AIDS has not cured (1) one case and the best they have to offer is AZT which is nothing more that “Prescription AIDS”. AZT kills DNA, if you kill DNA you kill life, Dah. AIDS is going to kill you, so speed up the process use AZT, don’t slit your wrist, that’s too fast. AZT shortens life but it relieves the pain. AIDS is and remains primarily a disease of those who have and continue to engage in heavy or recreational IV-drug use, coupled with hepatitis A or hepatitis B, syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes types 1 & 2, venereal warts, all of which weaken the immune system and lastly indiscrimanent sex of a homosexual natural rupturing capillaries or veins - need I say more. Lets look at the words (AIDS) ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME, which means it is acquired and certain groups must be doing something to acquire it. Doing something the rest of the population is not doing. One group is drug usage, the other is homosexual sexual activity. Let me set it straight, I’m not putting the major emphasis on homosexuality, but on a less than safe lifestyle which make one an easy victim. Lets clearly deal with this issue AIDS is either infectious or toxic. You get carpal-tunnel in the wrist from continuous wrist movement in a repetitive form. If you are an alcoholic you might get liver damage, so look at the process. Carpal tunnel and cirrhosis of the liver are not infectious but they are caused by the actions of the individual. Thusly, if you engage in a particular activity beware. to classify AIDS as a homosexual disease is the couldn’t be further from the truth, however the high risk factors are drug abuse, receptive anal intercourse, unprotected sex and a history of venereal disease. I could talk about this all night. My suggestion to BLACK AMERICA is to read. I am not a doctor - but I read every damn thing in sight and one thing we as BLACK AMERICANS have been accused of is not reading, which is more or less IGNORANCE. Ebony, Jet and Essence are not - try the American Journal of Medicine sometimes, it won’t put a tiger in your tank, or make anything go better with Cke or Pepsi, but it might enlighten a otherwise ignormic mind. Peace - A Brother In The Struggle


Submit Date: 20 NOV 1998
Name: Jeffrey G. Oden
Email: "ofield@uwm.edu
Response: One of the reasons for this silence is the Black church's position on aids. It teaching in the early days of aids that this was god way of dealing of ilmoral behavior commented by homosexuals, has come back to haunt the black community. While others, whites, where fighting for their lives, the black church ignored not only homosexuals, but the fact that many blacks are homosexual. That this desease like all desease's does not discriminate like people do not only shows how far we as a society has to go, but shows that black america has a longer road to travel than the rest of society. A great starting place would be the pastor's of our black church's. For unfortunately too many of them are not as enlighted as they claim to be and the close minded manner in which they address issues that effect the black community hurts more than helps. Maybe if they read and understood the bible instead of quoting the wrath of god, they could understand what love and sacriface is all about.


Submit Date: 17 NOV 1998
Name: DORA DORITY
Email: "nalset@fuse.net
Response: It was also reported that African Americans were "HAPPY SLAVES" and that their brains were too small to compete academically. Perhaps one needs to look at statistics and their origins before believing in them and offering opinions based on them. There are several studies that depict an overall drop in the incidents of AIDS in all communities. Go figure!


Submit Date: 12 NOV 1998
Name: Nnamdi Nzingha
Email: "GY13@WEBTV.NET
Response: I'm not really sure if it is a code of silence that's contributing to the massive spread of aids in our community, but I know we better take this disease seriously before there is permanent silence in our community!!!


Submit Date: 12 NOV 1998
Name: boohab
Email: "boohab@mindspring.com
Response: i got buck teeth. the first time i went to school with white kids, i was 14 years old. and until that moment in my life, i had never seen braces on anyone's teeth. i asked, among other things how much they cost. the answer $1,400. now i don't know about you but that was about 6 months of mortgage payments at my house. most of the kids in my neighborhood had buck teeth because most of the parents in my neighborhood didn't have medical benefits. so going to the doctor was not a habit, it was an event. actually it had to be an emergency. so we all were used to seeing bucktooth brothers, babies with bowlegs and navels that stick out and the occasional teen who just couldn't stop scratching you know where. ringworm and lice and a bunch of other stuff (when we got measles, the board of health literally quarantined our house) were just a fact of black life, like not having jobs as doctors. like all human beings we learned to live with our hardships as a regular feature of life. i never knew buckteeth were such a crime - i didn't know they could be fixed. and i think most black folks were like me. so now we got aids. we got aids like we got crack and we got guns. it's just one of those things that hurt 'ordinary people' and smash the kind of black folks who don't know what is a orthodontist. there ain't no code of silence, just ignorance and poverty. same as it ever was.


Submit Date: 11 NOV 1998
Name:
Email: "Urban_Guerrilla@webtv.net
Response: The figures still indicate 90% of all new HIV infections occur in THIRD WORLD NATIONS!! The basic medical care and costly drugs remain essentially nonexistent. Who is this Hard Nose Fool, who insists on spreading erroneous information about HIV and African-Americans?? He/She needs an Emergency Lobotomy!!! In July of 1998, you reported 57% AIDS and African-Americans; now, in November 1998, You're reporting 43% AIDS and African-Americans. What about the Third World Nations and 90%??? GIVE IT A REST!!!


Submit Date: 11 NOV 1998
Name: Frances Murphy
Email: "FrankieLou@aol.com
Response: The key word here is "reported." Those in the middle and upper income brackets are not going to"report" or let their health providers "report" that they have AIDS. Secondly, there is no such thing as a "Code of Silence." I have heard too much about the AIDS epidemic in the Black community and not enough about scientific evidence about where it came from and how to curtail it... If you look at real numbers and not percentages there are a whole lot of white folks out there dying from AIDS that no one is talking about. And finaly, I am disturbed that when the money is distributed it usually goes to groups which operate on the frnge of the Black community and not to groups within the community -- it is a no-win situation all around.


Submit Date: 10 NOV 1998
Name: G. William James
Email: "GWJ2000@aol.com
Response: I son't think it it so much a "code of silence" as much as there is a real lack of education. While it is true that there is a wide variety of sources of information on prevention of HIV infection, I believe that there are cultural perspectives indigenous to the African American community that must be considered in the education process. Generally speaking, males, for instance place a strong relationship to masculinity with sexual ability, and to them, condoms are not acceptible. Secondly, far too many of us still see HIV as a gay disease, and since they are having heterosexual encounters they do not see themselves at such great risk. Females have their challenges as well. My experience as an HIV/AIDS educator certified by The American Red Cross has given me the ability to assess the cultural differences between white, black and hispanic, straight and gay, young and old. The basic facts are the facts, indeed, but if we want our young people to survive, we better reach them using the same focus they have on sexual relationships to teach them how to have responsible and safe sexual relationships.


Submit Date: 10 NOV 1998
Name: Denise
Email: "RCampb3422@aol.com
Response: Hi, I also view the stats with suspect. I don't think African Americans are any more in denial about AIDS or the severity of the disease than any other race. Seems we have a higher rate of every disease there is. Makes us look unresponsible where our own health is concerned. I simply do not believe this. I don't believe African Americans are more sexually irresponsible than any other group of people. Unless AIDS is somehow connected to race (like sickle cell appears more in African Americans) I don't trust the stats. And if the stats are fact, I have to wonder why peoples of African decent are contracting AIDS at higher numbers. Sexual irresponsibility is not the answer. I simply don't believe that it is. I'm not saying that there are not sexually irresponsible African Americans. I am saying that African Americans are no less responsible sexually as a whole than any other race. Regards, Denise check me out at http://www.chistell.com


Submit Date: 10 NOV 1998
Name: SJW
Email: "wrights88@hotmail.com
Response: I have to agree with the individual who made the comment about these numbers being "flawed". I personally have worked in many facets where statistically data was taken and erroneously reported. (Sometimes because of laziness, sometimes because of ignorance) I really place no emphasis on polls, statistics, etc. It's the media's way of getting you to think that way. It really is a "Psychological Thing". Don't get me wrong, I not arguing that the disease isn't on the rise in the Black community, however, I don't believe the numbers that are being reported. First of all, it's not accurate because no one has access to all of this information. My advice to all would be to take statistics and polls with a grain of salt.


Submit Date: 5 NOV 1998
Name: Stacy
Email: "sl20@aol.com
Response: Yes, I think that mandatory testing should be done. Since we have so many of our brothers and sisters that are in denial, that anything (this AIDS epidemic) is even occuring its a must. In a lot of cases, "we" are so sure that we've been careful, and that we can trust our partners most of us are unaware that we are passing the virus/disease along. By being forced to take a mandatory AIDS test, we are now very aware of of the medical concerns involving us and the Black community at large.


Submit Date: 5 NOV 1998
Name: April
Email: "april@aol.com
Response: It is a known fact that African Americans account for the largest number of AIDs cases than any other ethnic group. I think the time now is to spend a little less money on research that continues to say that African Americans have the highest AIDs count but does not offer any clue as to why. More money should be spent on educating African Americans of every age about prevention.


Submit Date: 4 NOV 1998
Name: Riz Blackstone
Email: "black_power@rocketmail.com
Response: I think what people and AFRO-AM need to realize is that statistcs on STD's and HIV in particular are inherently flawed. Any type of survey material or data can only be taken from public medical centers. Private physicians and clinics are not allowed to release information on patients carrying diseases. In urban areas, there is a disproportionate amount of people of color who use public health facilities. Therefore, when statistics are being counted, of course it is going to appear that Blacks are spreading AIDS faster than any other race. I agree, Black people and all people ned to be more open about sexual diseases and our health. But please, let's make sure that the numbers we are throwing around are accurate before we start making big statements.


Submit Date: 2 NOV 1998
Name: danny
Email: "dwalker@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
Response: If you think those statistics are frightining, you should see the ones concerning the black population of africa. The biggest question we should be, why is this disease so prevasive in people of african descent? I blows me away how we are ignoring this deadly problem. I read an article by Ken Hamlin, god forgive me, but, it was stated that Africa, because of this disease,will start to decline in population. And, if 43 percent of all AIDS cases are African American, then we better get hip and start getting serious about fighting if as a race of people. There are plenty of brothers and sisters doing that right now but we always expect white people to come up with a solution. WE HAVE TO GET REAL!!


Submit Date: 1 NOV 1998
Name:
Email: "bradfo43@ccvax.mmc.edu
Response: Until we talk about it openly, nothing can be done to address the problem. The code of silence essentially lets the problem continue to run rampant throughout the Black community. BTW, to the white supremacist who has been sending me hate mail after seeing my responses on this webpage, please stop it. Nobody wants to read ANYTHING you have to say-most of all, me.


Submit Date: 30 OCT 1998
Name: Monte Pratt
Email: "sanderdl@co.forsyth.nc.us
Response: Why are African-Americans disproportionately represented on the "A.I.D.S. rolls?" I am not sure, but once I figure out why African-Americans are disproportionately over-represented on the prison rolls, public assistance rolls, and under-represented on the honor rolls and bank rolls, I may have a better idea about the "A.I.D.S. rolls." Once I figure out what Presidential cabinet members and nominees Lani Guiner, Jocelyn Elders, Ron Brown, Mike Espy, Hazel O'Leary, Henry Cisneros, and the two African-Americans nominated respectively to originally replace Jocelyn Elders and to become the Air Force Chief of Staff had in common before they were "dethroned," then again, I might have a better idea about the "A.I.D.S." rolls.


Past discussion topics