TheLoop21.com

By: raechal (follow this member)
Fri, 06/05/2009 - 00:00

(Read more about our Stop Black AIDS initiative.)

AIDS is not the kind of thing most of us want to read about or even think about daily. And it's pretty clear most of us aren't really comfortable talking about it and all that comes with it — the importance of using condoms and being honest about your sexual history.

If we were, it wouldn't continue to infect such large numbers of people, especially in the black community. African Americans are affected at much higher rates than others, especially black young people and black women.

So, as you've read this week, this summer we're leading a Stop Black AIDS campaign with the Magic Johnson Foundation to get people thinking and talking about what's become an epidemic for black Americans. We want to do it in a way that's real and honest and lets everyone know that we don't really have a choice anymore: the problem's become too big to ignore, to not talk about and think about regularly. We want to make sure everyone understands the depth of the crisis and how it affects people of every race.

For help, on Wednesday, we gathered an all-star panel of influential bloggers and writers from big name organizations, including BlogXilla, of BlogXilla.com; Kenya Byrd, of Essence.com; Chuck Creekmur, of AllHipHop.com; Terrence Dean, author of Hiding in Hip Hop — On the Down Low in the Entertainment Industry from Music to Hollywood; Sonya D. Lockett, of BET; K. Aletha Maybank, of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Angela Yee, of Sirius XM Radio's Shade 45 station.

They had some smart ideas about what the black community should and should not to do to begin moving forward. Most importantly, they pointed out some underlying issues that need to be addressed before anything can happen.

We'll have video of the best moments from the event for you later. But I can tell you they talked about a lot of controversial stuff we don't see in the mainstream media. According to our panel, the fact that black women often are too worried about losing a guy to ask them to wear a condom is a big factor, as is the reluctance of many black men to tell people they're gay or have even had sex with other men. Our panel also talked about what the black church, the prison system, celebrities and parents could and, quite frankly, need to do to help.

As Dean pointed out, a lot of people in the black community still don't see the high rate of HIV/AIDS within the community as a problem. The country as a whole certainly doesn't.

The one person everyone really has to look at as an example, Dean said, is Magic Johnson, and he looks fine. Another problem he mentioned is that AIDS isn't as "sexy" as, say, cancer, which is often shown in newspapers and on TV as a white disease and one people proudly fight against.

Kenya Byrd told a heartbreaking personal story about her brother who died last year and had — silently, unbeknownst to the family — suffered from AIDS.

These are all things we're planning to examine this summer, with your help. Jump into the conversation at any time with our forums and polls and by posting our Stop Black AIDS logo on your blog, Web site, Facebook page and more. Make sure everyone you know gets the message. As always, you can submit your own stories, photos and video by clicking on "submit stuff" at the top of each page.

Raechal Leone is TheLoop21.com's senior editor. She writes the Inside The Loop blog.