FORUM
Novel approach for McMillan
Phill
Wilson
Guest
Columnist
I thought I had written my
last column about the "down
low." We've spent more than a
year now talking about this
deadly distraction, while close to
18,000 black people have died
from AIDS. But it's still all over
the media. It seems everywhere
you turn someone is speculating
about what TerTy McMillan's
husband, Jonathan Plummer,
knew and when he knew it.
1 don't know Plummer or
McMillan. Sadly, before it's all
over, I'm sure we will all know
more about both of them than
they would have ever imagined
or wanted. But the whole
episode has illustrated the self
defeating impact everyone's
obsession with the down low is
having.
The end of a relationship is
painful. But when that relation
ship's collapse is played out in
the tabloids and on talk radio,
the perceived betrayal can be
devastating and humiliating. It
would not surprise me if both
Plummer and McMillan do and
say some things during this time
that they will some day regret.
So far, Plummer has accused
McMillan of being homophobic,
and McMillan has, in turn,
implied that Plummer deliber
ately deceived her and put her at
risk for HIV. Both parties are
giving short shrift to the compli
cated emotions that drive sexu
ality.
I don't know if McMillan is
homophobic. But I do not think
lashing back with anti-homosex
ual outbursts after being told by
your husband that he is gay nec
tell their wives or girlfriends that
they are gay. They acknowledge
having sex with another man
only upon being caught. And
even then they certainly don't
claim a gay identity, as Plummer
has so publicly done.
1 have spent the last three
years talking to black women
essarily makes you a
homophobe. It just
makes you angry
and in search of a
scapegoat to focus
that anger on.
McMillan
thought she'd over
come the struggles
too many black
women face in their
romantic lives, and
about the down low.
Their most recurring
concern is the dishon
esty. But Plummer
appears to have done
exactly what everyone
has been begging
black men in his situa
tion to do: Tell the
truth.
now it feels like she
hasn't. That hurts. Like many
women, she deserves meaning
ful support in exploring why she
finds herself ii> unfulfllling rela
tionships.
I also don't know anything
about Plummer's journey to
honesty with himself and his
loved ones. What I do know is
that there is no evidence so far
that he did anything that might
expose McMillan to the AIDS
virus. (For the record, after
weeks of vague references to
Plummer having "put my life at
risk," McMillan has declared
that she gets regular HIV tests
and is negative.)
I also know that Plummer is
clearly not "on the down low,"
as a number of media reports
have stated or implied. After all,
men on the "DL" - at least as it
has been characterized - don't
Plummer's situa
I Ian tion is emblematic of
the catch-22 black gay
and bisexual men face. Stay in
the closet, lie to yourself and
others, and you're a demon. Be
open and honest about your sex
uality - and you're still a demon.
But the bottom line is this:
Black women are not getting
infected with HIV because their
male partners are gay. Black
women are getting infected
because their partners are having
unprotected sex with an HIV
positive person (it doesn't matter
if that person is male of female),
or sharing needles with an HIV
positive person, and then having
unprotected sex with them. Or
they are sharing needles with an
HIV-positive person themselves.
It's as simple as that. By
ignoring these realities and play
ing the blame-and-shame game,
we are killing ourselves. Nearly
50 percent of people living, with
HIV in America are black. Every
day, 20 black women gel infect
ed with HIV and 16 black men
die from AIDS .
We need to challenge our
assumptions about why African
American women, gay and
bisexual men. and other popula
tions are at high risk for HIV.
Characterizing black men as
hyper-sexual predators and
black women as helpless vectors
of disease only contributes to
HIV's spread. Instead, we need
to focus on reducing specific
behaviors that place both men
and women al risk.
So I have a novel idea. How
about letting McMillan and
Plummer work out the dissolu
tion of their relationship in the
privacy they deserve and each of
us would want. Instead, let's
focus on fighting some of the
real causes of AIDS in our com
munity - denial, fear, ignorance,
stigma.
After all. what would happen
if stigma and bigotry did not
force black gay and bisexual
men to hide? What would hap
pen if disempowerment and low
self-esteem didn't prevent black
women from demanding the
kind of relationships they
deserve? We would be closer to
ending the AIDS epidemic than
we are - and that'd be worth a
groove or two.
Phill Wilson is founder and
executive director of the Black
AIDS Institute in Los Angeles.
Wilson has been living with HIV
for 23 years. He can be reached
at Phillw@BlackAJDS.org.
Ron
Walters
Guest
Columnist
On Saturday, the Rev. Jesse
Jackson Sr. will lead a commemo
ration of the 40th anniversary of
the signing of the Voting Rights
Act in Atlanta. It is vitally impor
tant that this date is marked, both
because it has meant so much to
the history of African-Americans
as a validation of their struggle for
citizenship and because we cannot
depend upon other institutions to
educate our own about our suc
cesses and where we have to go
next.
Most important, it is vital to
remember that civil rights laws
such as the Voting Rights Act rep
resent something that blacks and
their allies who believed in justice
created. It was not a grant of gov
ernment, but an act of self-deter
mination by people who believed
in the fulfillment of the promises
of American democracy.
Nor did they believe that by
merely acquiring the right to vote
that the status of citizenship alone
would give them the power they
needed to make the necessary
changes that would improve their
lives. That is to Say, from Freder
ick Douglass (and even before
him) to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,,
Stokely Carmichael and others,
the quest for the right to vote was
the quest to use the vote as an
instrument of empowerment.
The most immediate result of
the Voting Rights Act was the
improvement in the voting by
blacks. In Mississippi, black vot
ing went from 6 percent of all
blacks in in 1964 to 44 percent by
1968. Section 2 of the act prompt
Voting with our feet
ed the courts to examine the dis
tricts that blacks were voting in, to
determine if the vote actually
empowered them.
The creation of single-mem
ber districts by the courts and the
outpouring of voters launched the
movement that resulted in electing
blacks to office at all levels of
government. So, whereas there
were only 400 black elected offi
cials around the country in 1964,
today there are more than 9,500.
The Voting Rights Act has
also been important in allowing
blacks to cast their votes in nation
al elections, registering an impact
that has made the difference
between candidates for national
office. Blacks were the difference
in the narrow election of John F.
Kennedy over Richard Nixon in
1960; Kennedy won by less than 1
percent.
African-Americans propelled
a peanut farmer from Georgia,
Jimmy Carter, to the White House
in 1976. Then, while Bill Clinton
was successful in attracting some
Reagan Democrats back to the
fold in 1992, he also could not
have won without the black vote.
The black vote in presidential
elections has all but caught up
with the white vote. In 2000, the
difference was 5.7 percent in reg
istration and 6.3 percent in voting;
in 2004, it was 9.1 percent in reg
istration and 9.4 percent in voting,
as conservative voters surged to
the polls.
Nevertheless, the last two
elections have also exposed prob
lems in the continuing search to
achieve black empowerment
through the exercise of the black
vote. First, we discovered that
millions of black votes are either
not counted or thrown out, on pur
pose by racists running voting sys
tems.
Millions more do not get to
vote because of their felony status,
by the continuing intimidation of
black voters by police and vote
monitors at polling stations, by not
having enough voting machines in
black neighborhoods and by the
dirty tricks played to confuse the
process.
Second,- with the new elec
tronic voting machine technology,
black votes are also voided by the
accident of malfunctioning
machines and blacks unfamiliar
with the technology. Put another
way, we discovered that the
attempt of blacks to cast their vote
in America is still under siege and
as such, the citizenship is far from
complete.
My most recent book, "Free
? ?
dom Is Not Enough" (Rowman
and Littlefield), was released last
month to tell yet another story
about why we have not achieved
empowerment from the black
vote. We have not used the vote
effectively as leverage to secure
what black communities need in
public policy and material
resources.
Here, 1 go back to the example
of the 1984 and 1988 presidential
campaigns of Rev. Jesse Jackson
Sr. Blacks had more delegates to
the Democratic convention than
ever in history, more power over
the party than ever before, blacks
defined the progressive wing of
the party, and several public poli
cies found their way into law. It
was all because he had the
courage not just to energize peo
ple to vote, but after the vote, to
face up to the party leadership and
make demands, based on the
black vote.
Blacks have not had their own
political organization since the
Jackson campaigns and as a result
they are weaker and more depend
ent on the Democratic Party and
organized labor for their political
resources. The message is obvious
and clear: If others control your
vote, they get to use your power
one way or another.
Thus, I suggest that the way
forward to greater empowerment
is that blacks truly own our own
political resources and challenge
our politicians to find the courage
to leverage them more effectively
at all levels of government. See
you in Atlanta.
Ron Wallers is the Distin
guished Leadership Scholar,
director of the African American
Leadership Institute in the Acade
my of Leadership, and professor
of government and politics at the
University of Maryland-College
Park.
Nigel Alston's weekly
column will return
next week .
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