Personal Reflection on HIV/AIDS and Blackness
There are a myriad of interconnected and complex issues affecting Black communities when it comes to HIV/AIDS. Everyday, we as a people exist in a world—a country that dehumanizes, devalues, degrades, and dismisses our personhood. We live in a society that would rather blame the hardships that many Black/African-Americans face on us, rather than admitting and acknowledging the impact of chattel slavery, past and present racism, and structural violence that create toxic environments that impact sexual and reproductive health decision-making.
All too often, we are rendered silent and invisible by those who have been reared in a racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic society. Our mental, spiritual, physical, emotional, and intellectual selves are put upon, forced into the margins (intentionally or unintentionally) and are systematically forced to either bend to conform to dominant, white-supremacist ideology or break trying—this is oppression.
Though not comprehensive, it is in the aforementioned context that I believe has direct impact and implication on how Black/African-Americans live, exist, and negotiate with a system that is not built for our success. When examined closely, a complex set of interconnected systems are revealed that actually limit Black/African-American’s access to information, education, knowledge, sexual and reproductive health services–opportunities across the board.
It is living and existing in that context that many Black/African-Americans are encountering HIV/AIDS—with the end result of these convergent realities being such that we as a people are disproportionately infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Therefore, the work that I think that needs to be done to address and redress HIV/AIDS disparities among Black/African-Americans requires that we confront the whole context and engage intentionally and authentically in our truth telling.
We are existing in a time where it is no longer ethical to provide simple and singular solutions to address large, systemic, and complex social issues like HIV/AIDS, racism, or homophobia. We live in a time where research has shown that if we are to be effective at really rectifying those social ills, we must engage the mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of individuals as well as the socio-cultural environmental systems that we are socialized by.
The issues facing many Black/African-Americans around HIV/AIDS are complex. While I can not redress every social and historical issue that predisposes Black/African-Americans to HIV, I do believe that if we do not contront the context we are sentencing our people to death. The impact of oppression on our overall well-being is real and the consequences can be dire. We must call out and fight against oppression in all its forms. We must create access to quality health care. We must advocate for structural interventions that promote policy change, systems change, and environmental change that will meet the needs of Black/African-American people.
