The San Francisco Examiner - Sunday, Aug. 17, 1997
Venise Wagner of the Examiner Staff

The problem?

Mosby believed the panel, in its attempt to cut through a decade of denial that has made African Americans one of the fastest-growing HIV populations in the country, wasn't going deep enough.

"They don't want to go down to the bottom," said Mosby during a break in the forum. "They want to give us a pretty picture. They're hoping the surface (discussion) will get the message across."

The 35-year-old, HIV-negative gay man who lives in Oakland said he was fed up with lagging services for HIV-positive blacks.

"We don't want to talk about the institutional racism involved with this epidemic that was furthered by white gay men," he said. "How we're not included at the table. How funding was divided. How when pictures came out, we didn't see any black faces."

The San Francisco Black Coalition on AIDS and the Bay Area Black Journalists Association hosted the forum discussion on Saturday that addressed five different aspects of AIDS in the black community: prevention, African American women with AIDS, state initiatives on AIDS, AIDS in Africa and AIDS in the religious community.

At the heart of the discussion is the startling statistic that 41 percent of people with AIDS in the country are African American.

When Mosby and a few others in the audience took a more adversarial stance, Danny Joe, project director for Rafiki Service Project in San Francisco, said people have to look within for their empowerment.

"I hear a lot of fussing," said Joe. "I hear of lot of complaining. But I see little action. You have the power within (to change things)."

While the 10 panelists spoke to the issues, it was clear by the end that it had only scratched the surface. But one recurring theme was the need for continued dialogue on subjects that have long been taboo in the black community.

Those subjects include:

*Homophobia, which has allowed blacks to deny that AIDS reaches everyone in the community.

"There is an internal responsibility in the black community to understand that (AIDS) is a huge threat," said Steve Oxendine, a panelist. "There is a level of denial. We have to take ownership of that fight. It has to be our fight."

*Organizations for gay men and women with HIV and AIDS often having to compete against each other for funding.

"We're in a war," said Mosby. "It's a war between men who love men and women and Asians and Latinos for funding. We're pitted against each other."

*Agencies and organizations serving blacks not collaborating enough when applying for funding and therefore competing with each other. In addition, some black organizations fail to write strong enough grant proposals.

*Federal funding slowly cutting back its funding for ethnic-specific organizations to provide funding for research and more global approaches to treating the disease.

"We have to look at it from the research perspective," said Toni Young, who works on the National Women on HIV Project. "There is a fear of the public health system, and for good reason. But it (survival) begins with science and our involvement with science.

*Black organizations modeling their programs on other agencies and theories that cater to non-blacks.

"It goes back to assimilating not to who we are but who someone wants us to be," Young said. "We're different. That's something we're not willing to say."

*Outreach to young people improving and going beyond the istribution of condoms.

"You can't convince a man of 28 that (something) will happen to him," said Oleta Cook, a private home care nurse's aide who has worked in the AIDS ward at San Francisco General Hospital. "They believe if they have sex in different ways, they can't catch it. There needs to be abstinence, because you know you don't know what you're doing because you're playing with your life."
970817
SE970803

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 1997. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .