Exra Credit

I was glad to have had the opportunity to attend the presentation regarding Aids/HIV Awareness. The organization that was presenting was called Guiding Right. It is directly funded by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This program offers many outreach services such as SISTA & Between Brothers, Disk Reduction Counseling, Street Outreach, W.I.C. Support Groups for HIV Victims & families & free confidential HIV Testing and Counseling. The purpose of Guiding Right’s presentation was to provide an overview of media representation of blacks & H.I.V Epidemic. There were some bewildering results and statistics. Statistics show that there are over 40 million persons with A.I.D.S. Pandemic worldwide –North America consists of 890,000. What’s even more frightening and disturbing is that A.I.D.S killed more than 25 million peoples since 1981. Did you know that of 2004, 4,883, young people received a diagnosis of H.I.V. infection. Around this time to lighten up the mood Nina Johnson the H.I.V. coordinator suggested to use condoms without oil. She gave a brief overview of the dos and don’ts of condoms which was quite interesting. Now back to the point. In the 1980’s before many of us were born –H.I.V. was known as “the gay white man’s disease”. Media showed victims of the emerging epidemic as white men who were deteriorating. So in response African Americans thought: Oh, I’m not white or gay so this has nothing to do with me and so they kept finding excuses but by that time it was too late and H.I.V. had taken a stronghold in the African American community but it was not reported in the media. What was interesting but not surprising was the fact that people kept their mouths shut because they didn’t want to get stigmatized people were not talking about it-especially if someone died from it. Quick fact: Robert Wagner –Poppa Brady of Brandy has A.I.D.S. There were movies that include A.I.D.S .In 1998 “An Early Frost” was the first televised movie about H.I.CV. But the sex was implied- there was not that much of the background info they had the opportunity to educate but denied it. Media needs to stop sugar coding this issue and address it wholeheartedly. Because people especially my people are dying from this disease. I was glad I attended the presentation it was indeed informative, and an eye opener, hopefully you learned something to.