Black Man’s Burden: Black Women and HIV

Coming To The Stage, Guest Blogger John Williams!! This is an interesting article. I am interested in hearing your response.

As of late, I have been indulging myself in the occasional dialectic about the Black community and how we can, as people, develop newer ways to address these issues. However, as I listen to different people’s perspectives, the disheartening thing that I have come across is that Black men seem to be stigmatized as the sources of almost ALL problems in the Black community. This is disturbing, since most of it is through assumption and through the powers of suggestion by media and rumor mills alike. Therefore, this is the first of several notes that I plan on writing regarding Black men and the stigmata placed on us.

One of the major stigmata that is placed on the Black man is the notion that Black Men (particularly on the DL) are the major reason that Black women are receiving this dreadful disease at an alarming rate. The idea is that because there is such homophobia within the Black community, Black men who are homosexual are more likely to conceal their previous sexual interactions with men and continue to have heterosexual partners. This, in turn is often used as the primary explanation for Black women receiving HIV…deception by Black men. For many Black women, this raises many red flags about brothers, and because of handy work by JL King and other media forms who made a lot of money off of this trend, we now have a situation where Black women fear for their lives when dating Black men.

But let’s look a little deeper into the message that Black women SHOULD be getting from this…

-Black men in America are not as deceptive as many would suggest.

Statistically speaking, 34% of Black men that are homosexual are likely not to tell their female partners. This seems, indeed, to be a large number and at first glance may make women scared of the prevalence of homosexual men in the heterosexual population. But what does this number also imply…this number also implies that 76% of the Black males who are homosexual or have had homosexual activity are likely to disclose that to a future partner, whether male or female. This reverse statistic (which is never stated, but can be implied by the formally stated numbers) shows that homosexual Black men are overwhelmingly responsible in terms of their openness and directness with future partners about their homosexual activities. (Keep in mind, this does not even include the strictly heterosexual population, which makes DL men a minority.) So the notion that DL men are running rampant amongst the Black community may indeed be a hyperbole, or exaggeration, that has forced its way into our community and has misrepresented itself amongst the total Black male population.

DL Men are not as gay as one would think. (Bad choice of words, I know.)

The CDC statistics page does suggest that DL Black men are a problem, and I am not one to dispute that. I think men that do choose to hide their homosexual status are despicable. But with that said, the CDC also goes on to state that they find that Black men on the DL are also less likely to contract HIV through high-risk activity. This means that although 36% (as stated earlier) are likely not to tell their homosexual status, they are less likely to catch HIV through high-risk activity. There are many ways to interpret this, but one may take this to mean that homosexual men who are on the DL may not be the biggest vector by which this disease makes it to the heterosexual population.

-Black women are sometimes their own worst enemy.

Black women have been at the forefront of the HIV debate since the current numbers show that they are leading all groups in new infections acquired. For me, this statistic is alarming, because I hate to see anyone catch this disease, but moreso, I hate to see my sisters infected with such a malady. However, this is what sisters are missing:

*The number one cause of HIV amongst Black women is not sleeping with DL black men, but having personal high risk sexual behavior. *

The CDC reports that Black women engage in high-risk sexual behavior , and that this accounts for 80% of the cases that are reported amongst Black and Latino women. By high risk, the CDC means having high numbers of sexual partners and/or using no protection. This, in effect, can shift the onus of protecting our Black women from this disease to Black women themselves…which is how it should be in the first place. As individuals, we are responsible for what goes in and out of our body for the most part. How much sex you have and how protected you are is positively correlated with how HIV is transmitted through the Black female population. I am not one to invoke the victim-responsibility approach to situations like these often, but it seems that Black women, if they are indeed concerned about this rising trend, need to accept more of the responsibility in terms of their sexual activity as well. This, in turn, could signal a decline in the overall numbers of sisters who contract this disease.

-Drug usage amongst Black women is higher than one would think.

The CDC also lists drug usage as the second leading cause of HIV amongst Black women. One thing that we don’t hear alot about, however, is Black women and drug usage. Many of these numbers are spewed out into the studies, and people quote them for the purposes of dialogue. And while many of us focus on sexual transmission of HIV, in those total numbers of Black women who are contracting this disease, a fair proportion of them are from drug usage as well. So while the community and celebrities are focusing on the sexual aspect, they are ignoring another large segment of the population, which will essentially lead to gaps in the understanding of how this disease is affecting our women.

-Dating other races is not the answer to avoiding HIV.

Many Black women have espoused the belief that dating other races will protect them from HIV (and a bunch of other problems that tend to be suggested as being exclusively Black Male problems). This is a sad and naive way of thinking. Numerically, Blacks and Whites are about even in terms of overall total cases of HIV/AIDS, with Blacks being 41% and Whites being 40%. This is a statistic that is rarely expressed by scientists and activists alike. Many of our Black leaders will ignore the fact that it is a national issue and focus it in on our community.

Their explanation: We need to focus on what affects our community, not everyone else’s.

My reply: If we were only EXCLUSIVELY dealing with Black people sexually, then that would be a nice assumption. But the bottom line is, we are not isolated, and Black men and women are going to other races in terms of sexual and romantic relationships…so we can’t focus SOLELY on our own and not address the bigger picture.

If we are to solve this problem within the Black community, we can only do so if we are honest about what the problem is and how it is being maintained. Simply put, the Black community is one that tends to be self-loathing, making ourselves the victim and the perpetrator for almost all of the ills in our society. The fact is, while I don’t like blaming the “other man”, I do acknowledge that the source of our problems may lie in the fact that we narrow our sights too much to ourselves and not the world as a whole. In the case of HIV transmission amongst Black women, by honing in on Black men as the biggest issue, we may end up promoting Black women to go to other races rather than trying to be more savvy about their sexual practices. In turn, Black women may began catching this disease from other races, while thinking that they have avoided it through dating outside of the Black community.

In conclusion, the Black community is one that has its share of problems that need to be corrected. HIV transmission amongst the Black community (especially amongst our sisters) is one of many issues that we face as a family of people and that we must work diligently to try and eradicate. However, blaming the other half of the Black community (Black men) will not solve the problems that Black women are experiencing with HIV in our communities. Black women have to be more knowledgeable about this disease, safer in terms of their sexual practices, and more diligent about their own health regardless of where the perceived “problem” lies. There is no magic cure, but stigmatizing Black men as the problem will do nothing but exacerbate the situation…and essentially break down the Black community as much as anything else.

***All statistics mentioned in this note were taken from the numbers reported to the CDC as of 2006. It should be noted that only 33 states were included in the formal presentation of the study, with many of the states reporting being the ones with the highest overall Black populations in the country.***

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/women/resources/factsheets/women.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/aa/resources/factsheets/aa.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/basic.htm

Popularity: 16% [?]

Related Posts:

1. Talented Black Man Syndrome
2. Are You Afraid To Be Tested?
3. Is An Emotional Man A Lame?