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08720/95
ON LIBRARY
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UNO-CH
CHAPEL HILL
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2013
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 30
JME 92 - NUMBER 47
Young Black Voters
Pay Higher 'Time
Tax’ at the Polls
/ Ayers is an American funk, soul, and jazz composer and vibraphone player,
tyers and his band performed at Hayti Heritage Center for two shows Nov.
ers, bottom right, delighted the audiences.
?c. 1 is World AIDS Day
jme Hopeful Signs in the
HIV/AIDS War
By Jazelle Hunt
WA Washington
Correspondent
SHINGTON (NNPA)
Lewis Thornton likes to
in a tranquil tea time be-
expanding her brand and
pills she has to take each
it that’s nothing compared
21 pills she was taking in
kest days of battling full-
AIDS.
rnton was diagnosed with
t 23 years old after at-
ig to donate blood. The
ng year she shared her
nd made the cover of Es-
magazine, instantly be-
’ toe face, of HIV/AIDS
ung, successful, hetero
black women, catapulting
into a life of activism and
y. Today, she continues to
:r, teach, and welcome the
into her life through her
winning syndicated blog,
Thornton on the cover of Essence.
iving with AIDS.
I she certainly is living. Now 51 years old, Thornton is an Emmy-Award winner, author, life coach
rtivational speaker, jewelry designer, and avid reader.
ic thing I’ve done is live incredibly well with this disease,” says Thornton, who lives in Chicago,
an’t confuse my HIV now with how it used to be. Now, they can keep you here and you can live a
fe, but it is a very hard life.”
if 2010, the HIV/AIDS mortality rate is 2.7 (per 100,000), down from 8.3 in 1990. Thanks to ad-
in research, treatment, and global management, HIV-positive people are living longer, better lives.
> amixed bag. We are still saddened by every new infection, and they’re still happening so rapidly,”
dam Tenner, executive director of D.C.-based nonprofit, Metro Teen AIDS. “But it’s not like the
/s, when we were burying people very quickly after diagnosis. We spend so much time looking at
broken, we don’t often look at what’s working.” '
I there is a lot that is working. In D.C. for example, where the infamous infection rate has been
red to that of developing nations, the Department of Health is touting a 50 percent decline in new
iver the past four years, thanks to a battery of free services and community awareness campaigns,
ally, the rate of infection for black women is on the decline. Globally, the rate of hew infections
>pped 33 percent since 2001.
ings in 2013 are very, very, very different than it was in 1982, or 1992, or even 2002,” says Phill
i, founder and director of the Black AIDS Institute. “The treatments available today are better,
more effective, and less toxic than ever before.”
not an overstatement to call the first generation of antiretrovirals toxic. HIV/AIDS medications are
sd to block the enzymes that allow the virus to replicate; but in the 1990s, the drugs blocked both
us and the body’s ability to generate healthy cells,.thus crippling tissues and organs. Side effects
id nausea, diarrhea, concentrated fatty deposits in some areas and natural-fat deterioration in oth-
iney disease, hepatitis, bone loss, and even nerve damage.
ple had to take a handful of these pills, several times daily. And usually, doctors wouldn’t start
bing these pills until after the virus’ symptoms became dire.
ay, someone who’s diagnosed early and begins treatment immediately might take three pills a few
i day, with few, if any, dietary restrictions, and with mild side effects.
son has been living with HIV for 35 years.
ve an active life. I work, some would say too hard. I run, hike,
ra dive, white water raft - none of that would be possible without treatment,” he says. “And I’m not
. It’s not like I have secret access to something others don’t have access to.”
roved treatment has also unexpectedly given rise to the development of preventative measures
1 the condom.
Tenner, of Metro Teen AIDS explains, “We know that if we can get people on anti-virals early it
'es their outcomes, but it also makes them less likely to transmit to others. You literally become less
3us. So what’s coming down the pike is how HIV negative people can protect themselves. We’re
* to put more tools in the box for people at higher risk of contracting HIV.” (Continued On Page 7)
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Cor
respondent
WASHINGTON
(NNPA) -As the American
electorate becomes more
diverse, new voting laws
threaten to disenfranchise
young black and Latino
voters in what a newreport
called “the largest wave of
voter suppression since the
enactment of the 1965 Vot
ing Rights Act.”
The report by OurTime.
org and Advancement Proj
ect, titled “The Time Tax,”
details disparities in the ex
cessive wait times that mil
lennials (18-29 years-old),
especially millennials of
color, endured to cast votes
during the 2012 November
elections.
According to the report,
millennials are expected to
account for 40 percent of
the electorate in less than
eight years including a
higher proportion of young
minority voters.
During the 2012 No
vember elections, millenni
al voters (18-29 years-old)
accounted for 19 percent
of the electorate. While
turnout for Latinos, Asians
and the youngest voters de
creased (18-24 years-old),
voter turnout for blacks in
creased.
Yet, blacks “waited an
average of 23 minutes to
vote, compared to only 12
minutes for whites,” stated
the report.
Kan. agency
urges black
families to
do histories
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The
Kansas African American Af
fairs Commission is urging black
families to compile oral histories
through interviews this year after
Thanksgiving.
The commission is calling
the project “A New Black Fri
day.” The title is a play on the
nickname for the Friday after
Thanksgiving, typically the busi
est holiday shopping day of the
year.
The commission is encourag
ing people to speak with grand
parents, great-grandparents, par
ents, aunts, uncles, or any other
elders about their memories. It
even has posted a brochure with
potential topics for interviews on
its website at www.kaaac.ks.gov
The commission is asking
people to write short essays
about their interviews and sub
mit them by Jan. 1. .
Commission Executive Di
rector Mildred Edwards said
compiling the histories will
add to the knowledge about the
state’s heritage.
Tafari Ali: 'Stigma Exists.’
[NNPA Photo by Freddie Allen]
Conference Tackles the
Stigma Surrounding
HIV/AIDS
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - In 1992, Beverly Becton, addicted to
drugs and suffering from pneumonia, began to scream as she sat in a
hospital room alone at the D.C. General Hospital in Southeast, Wash
ington, D.C.
“Oh, god why me! Oh, God why me!” Becton screamed.
Becton had just learned that she was HIV-positive at a time when
many in the black community and health care providers still believed
that a positive test was an automatic death sentence. Becton said that
the doctor who told her that she was HIV-positive, left her in the
room without providing any treatment information, counseling or re
ferrals. Becton called a niece and told her about the diagnosis.
Her niece freaked out. Later, Becton would tell the niece that she
“was just playing” that she hadn’t contracted HIV. Becton’s older
sister toldher not to tell anybody else.
“My sister sent me into total denial,” said Becton. She continued
to use drugs and avoided treatment as she waited to die.
The virus that causes AIDS that had killed so many others didn’t
send her to her grave.
“One day I just got tired of dying, killing myself,” said Becton.
Seven years after receiving her first diagnosis, Becton decided to get.
help, tackling the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS head on.
Becton, 52, now an AIDS activist, shared her story at the Interna
tional Conference on Stigma at Howard University last week. The
event featured lectures and panel discussions on the stigma asso
ciated with HIV/AIDS and other health issues in an effort to raise
awareness about what conference organizers called aCoemajor barrier
to prevention and treatment of HIV and a violation of human rights.”
The audience included health care providers, students, community
leaders, activists, and people living with HIV/AIDS and their family
and friends.
Jeanne White Ginder, Ryan White’s mother, was the keynote
speaker during the morning session. She talked about how her son,
desperately wanted to be treated like everyone else at time when little
was known about HIV/AIDS.
In 1984, Ryan White, born with hemophilia, gained national
prominence when he was barred from attending school following
an AIDS diagnosis at 13 years old, making him one of the young
est hemophiliacs to be diagnosed with AIDS. White won that battle,
but after facing discrimination, protests and threats of violence in
his hometown of Kokomo, Ind., White’s family, moved and White
transferred to a new school in Cicero, Ind., where students received
HIV/AIDS education and training from physicians and health care
providers before he arrived. Students and school officials at the new
school welcomed White with open arms.
White died in April 1990 following complications from a respira
tory infection. Four months later, Congress passed the Ryan White
(Continued AOn APage 7)