4A
EDITORIAL AND OPINION/Qarlotte
Thursday, August 17,2006
Qoors xney re nj
the job that we
Jasmyne
Cannick
tCfie Cljarlotte ^osit
The Voice of the Black Community
153} Comden Road Charlotte, N.C. 28203
Gerald O. Johnson ceo/publisher
Robert L Johnson co-publisher/general manager
Herbert L White editor in chief
OPINION
When it comes
to gay blacks,
whose agenda
is it anyway?
For African Americans who live
with racial and sexual prejudice,
we’ll make our own decisions
You may not know it, but there’s a contingency of gay people
conspiring on ways to organize blacks.
And not only do they want to organize'blacks to spread their
message of marriage for everyone, but they want to' do it
through black gays. The relationship between black gay orga
nizations and some of the other gay groups is one where pub
licly they embrace us and applaud our efforts but behind closed
doors they’re figuring out to move us out of tfie picture and do
the job that we are doing.
j Did you know there are gay organizations
I that are meeting everyday to strategize on how
I to best mobilize black gays for their purposes of
i “diversity?” They’ve somehow gotten it into
i their heads that non-black gays hold the key to
i breaking the cycle of homophobia in the black
i commimity. Let me get this straight, no pim
intended.
Individuals who are not from black communi
ties, know little to nothing about our communi
ty, and for the most part aren’t even remotely
interested in really working with our community know how to
talk to blacks about marriage. Similar to the co-opting of black
pulpits to spread the white conservative agenda during the
2004 presidential election, black gay groups are being taken
over by the gay agenda and nowhere is this more prevalent
than in California where one of the more prominent gay groups
is working overtime at telling black gays what they need to say
to black people about marriage.
This gay group has now set their aspirations on black politi
cians in California after hearing fi*om other black gays that
they didn’t have a relationship with them. As with everything
else, they’ve bypassed the black gay leadership and are now
tr3Tng to get the blacks in Sacramento on their team, using any
method necessary which usually means money and lots of it.
This is the reason why black politicians and black leaders don’t
know anything about the black gay leadership. Gay groups
with more money beat us to the punch every time and take
credit for everything. Black gays don’t need non-black gays to
organize them.We’ve been down this road before and it’s not an
effective strategy. Black gays can handle the black community
on their own. You don’t see us trying to message outside of our
community on gay marriage with efforts to organize the over
all gay community, so what gives others the right to come into
our community and try to undo all of the years of hard work
that black gays have put into fighting for our civil rights?
What is the use of having black gay groups if the other gay
leadership is going to trample aU over us and use their money
to overstep us at every point?
Every time I turn around, I’m hearing about coalition budd
ing, but coalition building for whose benefit? Black gays would
be better off building coahtions with the larger black commu
nity, but we can’t because every time we turn around, the other
gay leadership is using their money to get in good with the
black leadership leaving us out of the picture completely.
Marriage has never been number one on our agenda. Any
campaign to win support for marriage in black communities
must start with an acknowledgement of that fact.
Sure we want the right to get married, but we also want
affordable housing, employment, universal healthcare, more
funding for HIV/AIDS programs in oiu- communities, and
social security reform. We want to deal with the black church
and combating the homophobia that is spewed from the pulpit.
What some of the other gay groups fail to realize is that black
gays are in fact black and because we’re Black there are a myr
iad of issues that are facing us that may take precedence of
marriage, black gay men in particular are dealing with the
issues of being a black man in America, which includes an
increased incarceration rate.
As a black lesbian, I am equally concerned about the lack of
jobs with livable wages, healthcare, affordable housing, police
brutality, gang violence, and the continued racism towards
blacks in this country. That doesn’t mean that my civil rights
as a lesbian take second place but it does mean that I am just
as concerned about my civil rights as a black and that’s where
many of these gay groups just don’t get it. They want everyone
who is gay to be gay first and race is a secondary issue. Race
is the reason why you will find the majority of black gays living
in minority communities and not the self-created gay enclaves
like West Hollywood, Dupont Circle, and Greenwich Village.
Because like other blacks, many of us are struggling to make it
and most of us can’t afford to live in these often times wealthi
er neighborhoods. Unfortimately, race is still an issue. As for
me, I will be always be, in this order: a black women who is a
lesbian and at the end of the day I beheve that’s how a lot of
black gays feel, that they are black first.
JASMYNE CANNICK is a founding member of the National Black
Justice Coalition, the nation's Black gay civil rights groups and is a mem
ber of the National Association of Black Journalists. Based in Los
Angeles, she can be reached via her website at
www.jasmynecannick.com.
AIDS remains a ‘super’ problem for aU
TORONTO - You know an
event is important when it
takes on Roman numerals. It-
instantly achieves Super
Bowl status.
This year’s International
AIDS Conference is number
XVI. The one two years ago in
Bangkok was XV. And the
one two years from now, in
Mexico City, will be XVII.
This is the real Super Bowl.
It’s not a game to crown a
winner, but a gathering in
search of a
cure.
■ Despite the
worldwide
attention, there
is no “cure” or
vaccine on the
horizon that
vrill prevent
HIV infections
and other life
saving precautions will have
to be accelerated.
Every two years, delegates
assemble - this year, 24,000
of them fi-om 153 coimtries -
hoping against hope for a
medical breakthrough. The
official program book has 487
pages, enough to prop open a
heavy door. It’s a big book for
a big problem.
According to the World
Health Organization, approx
imately 65 million people
have been infected with HIV;
AIDS has killed more than 25
million people since it was
first reported in 1981. Since
numbers can be cold and
sometimes misleading, let’s
break them down.
The 25 million deaths is the
equivalent of the combined
population of New York City,
Los Angeles, Chicago,
Houston, Philadelphia and
Phoenix. Visualize everyone
dying in those cities, the most
populated in the U.S., and
. you begin to grasp the magni
tude of the problem. And that
doesn’t include the other 65
million infected, many of
whom win also die.
In 2005 alone, AIDS
claimed 2.8 mlLlioh people. In
that same year, more than 45
million were infected.
Two-thirds of all people hv-
ing with HIV — 24.5 million
- are hving in sub-Saharan
Africa, although that region
has only 10 to 11 percent of
the world’s population. On
the other side of the Atlantic
Ocean, blacks make up 13
percent of the U.S. popula
tion, but 40 percent of
944,300 AIDS cases and 49
percent of cases diagnosed in
2004.
As Phill Wilson, founder
and executive director of the
Black AIDS Institute in Los
Angeles, states: “AIDS is a
black disease.”
Not only is it a ’Tblack” dis
ease, it is increasingly a
female disease. AIDS is the
leading cause of death for
black women 25 to 34.
African-American women are
23 times more hkely to have
AIDS than white women. In
the U.S., two-thirds of black
women are infected by het
erosexual men. That’s not the
down low — its’ low down.
It is also increasingly a
youth disease, with half of the
new HIV cases spreading
among young people.
By 2005, AIDS had left
more than 15 nulhon children
under the age of 18 orphaned,
12 mUhon of them in sub-
Saharan Africa. More than
nine out of 10 children
become inflected with HIV
through mother-to-child
transmission, either during
pregnancy, childbirth or
breastfeeding.
On the financial front, there
is good news and bad news.
The good news is that total
AIDS funding is on the
increase, rising from $8.3 bil-
hon in 2005 to $8.9 billion in
2006 to $10 bilhon in 2007.
The bad news? That’s not
enough. UNAIDS estimates
that $14.9 billion is needed
this year and $22.1 bilhon in
2008.
If there is any good news on
the AIDS front, it’s that peo
ple such as Phill Wilson,
founder of the Black AIDS
Institute, and Pemessa
Seele, president and CEO of
the Balm in Gilead, have
done a remarkable job mobi-
hzing African-American lead
ers and ministers, making
sure that they don’t dismiss
AIDS as a “gay disease.”
Appearing here to support
Wilson’s call to arms were
Juhan Bond, chairman of the
NAACFs board of directors;
Representatives Maxine
Waters, Barbara Lee and
Donna Christensen; business
leader Sheila Johnson,
activist Danny Bakewell,
Holls^ood’s Bin Duke and
Sheryl Lee Ralph, Cheryl
Cooper of the Nation^
Council of Negro Women,
Jerry Lopes of National
Urban Radio Networks and
many more.
As is evident by so many
people converging on Ibronto
from so many places, the HIV
and AIDS epidemic takes on
so many forms in different
countries.
According to Human Rights
Watch, 3,000 people die each
week in Zimbabwe because of
“governmental policies that
create formidable obstacles to
accessing life-saving treat
ment.” The group says thou
sands of Romania children
and youth livir^ with HIV
face widespread discrimina
tion that “keeps many from
attending school, obtaining
necessary medical care,
working or even learning
about their disease.”
Additionally, Human
Rights Watch reports, “The
AIDS pandemic is fueled by a
wide range of human rights
violations, including sexual
violence and coercion faced by
women and girls, and abuses
against men who have had
sex with men, sex workers
and injecting drug
users...HIV spreads with
fidghtening efficiency due to
sexual violence, lack of access
to condoms, lack of harm
reduction measures for drug
users, and lack of informa
tion.”
The theme of this year’s
conference is “Time to deliv
er.” And that time cannot
come soon enough.
GEORGE E. CURRY is editor-
in-chiefof the NNPA News Service
andBlackPressUSA.com. Tocon-
tact Curry or to book him for a
speaking engagement, go to his
Web site, www.georgecurry.com.
Black professionals and advancement
In this prosperous country,
where the American Dream
is so vividly on display, it
would seem there is no place
for poverty and disillusion
ment.
But for millions of people of
color in this nation, hardship
and despair are the reahty.
Despite years of attention
to the achievement gap,
African-
American ^12th-
; graders contin-
i ue to perform at
about the level
I of white ninth-
graders in read
ing and math.
In health care,
African-
Americans • are
far more likely to rely on hos- ■
pitals and clinics - frequently
missing the primary and pre
ventive care often available to
white Americans. Blacks are
underrepresented in our uni
versities and boardrooms and
overrepresented in our pris
ons.
Slavery and colonialism
have, over the years, worked
seamlessly to ensure that
many people of color start a
couple of rungs down on the
ladder to success. Many have
had to adapt to make the.best
out of very bad situations.
with a worthwhile result: suc
cessful sons and daughters.
That is the good news.
Tbday, 30 percent of black
households fall in the middle
income range - a big jump
since 1967, when about 20
percent did. And the portion
of black households making
$75,000 to $99,999 jumped
nearly fourfold between 1967
and 2003.
It is these black profession
als, whose ancestors fought
bravely to overcome class and
racial hurdles, who are now
competing with the very best
in the world.
And, if the civil rights
movement is to adapt to the
needs of our times and move
forward full steam, it is these
growing numbers of black
professionals who must lead
it. .There is simply no alterna
tive-.
Black professionals in
America would do well to
remember first, that they are
exceptions to the rule, and
second, that they did not.
become successful on individ
ual effort alone. I myself
would not be in a position to
write this article had it not
been for those who resisted
slavery, fought Jim Crow,
championed civil rights and
resisted colonialism.
It MteraLly took a village to
get me where I am. And
today, it still takes a village.
T3 believe otherwise is to
undervalue the sacrifices of
the generations who came
before us. Many black profes
sionals currently enjo3dng
great success are out of
touch with reality if they
believe that they have equal
access to the American
Dream.
Our ultimate mission is
clear: We must shift the
imbalance between haves
and have-nots. We must close
the disparities in education,
health care, criminal justice,
economic power and civic
engagement.
This is not a call to arms - it
is a call to minds and hearts -
but the, need to act is urgent.
Beginning today, we must
chart a new course and
embark on a new, less dra
matic ci-vil rights march:
Black professionals must be
willing to reach out to the
young people in their commu
nities so that dropout rates of
50 percent are replaced with
high school graduates.
The ■ role of historically
black colleges and universi
ties as fountains of knowl
edge for black professionals
in the U.S. and over the world
must be reclaimed.
With AIDS killing black
men, women and children at
increasing rates - and too
many black Americans dig
ging our graves with our
knives and forks, black pro
fessionals must recommit to
health care and fitness.
It’s time to hold corpora
tions accountable for hiring
and advancing people from
the black community. Firms
must be pressured into buy
ing products and services
from minority-owned compa
nies. And so should we.
Finally, we simply must
turn out to vote. I just wit
nessed the signing of the
Voting Rights Act of 2006,
protecting our right to vote
for another 25 years. It is now
incumbent upon each of us to
exercise that right on
Election Day.
The iconic images of march
es on Birmingham and
Washington may be relegated
to history now - but the need
for a vigorous marching spir
it in every man and woman of
color remains aMve and well.
BRUCE CORDON is president
and CEO of the National
Association for the Advancement
of Colored People ■