BE HONEST ABOUT AIDS AND RACE

GARY DAFFIN appreciated Julian Bond's words on AIDS. He now waits to
see if they reverberate throughout black America.

"I don't think the words themselves are new," said Daffin, executive
director of Boston's Multicultural AIDS Coalition. "Some people like
Maxine Waters [a California congresswoman] have been yelling for
years. It does strike me that when I read about black leaders saying
it is time to deal with AIDS, it's the same group: Bond, Maxine
Waters, Jesse Jackson.

"If they can help normalize the discussion by continuing to talk
about it, that's great. But the people we are trying to reach are not
well off. They're not watching Julian Bond and Jesse Jackson give a
speech. We're working from the bottom up. The social networks needing
the most help are the ones most ostracized. . . . The speeches will
matter only if people start talking about HIV in the privacy of their
homes and take ownership of the issue in their homes and amongst
family and friends. . . . If we could make the discussion about
sexuality more open and honest and informative throughout the black
community and have the discussion without the taboos about sex, we
would go a long way to dealing with the disease."

At the international AIDS conference in Toronto this week, Bond, the
NAACP chairman, said, "The story of AIDS in America is mostly one of
a failure to lead, and nowhere is this truer than in our black
communities." Bond said the failure to lead has helped AIDS become "a
black disease."

In a statement of support, Jackson added that African-Americans have
been "a compliant victim, submitting through inaction."

Inaction has been devastating. African-Americans are 12.3 percent of
the population, but 61 percent of people under the age of 25 who were
diagnosed with HIV/AIDS between 2001 and 2004, according to the
Centers for Disease Control. AIDS is now the top national cause of
death for African-American women ages 25-34 and is among the top
three causes of death for black men 25-54.

In Massachusetts, the situation is equally frightening. According to
the state Department of Public Health, between 2002 and 2004 only two
white females for every 100,000 were diagnosed with HIV. But for
Latinas the rate is 40 females per 100,000 (21 times greater), and
for black females it is 79 per 100,000 (40 times greater). Black and
Latino men in the state are being diagnosed at the terrifying
respective rates of 92 and 64 per 100,000.

Daffin said there have been local political leaders who have long
supported AIDS education and prevention, such as Senator Dianne
Wilkerson and Representative Gloria Fox. But broad assumptions that
AIDS was a white gay disease created such a general wall of denial
that Boston groups like Men of Color Against AIDS struggled to gain
acceptance well into the '90s. Daffin said the denial was compounded
by a complex web of sexuality and drug use. Those issues are often
stigmatized into silence. Many black ministers stridently opposed gay
marriage in Massachusetts.

"I'm not saying we should force churches to distribute condoms, but I
do expect ministers to talk to congregations about taking care of
yourselves, getting tested, because you're not much use to your
families if you're not here," Daffin said. "The faith community
should make it clear who you can go to for help. We can't expect them
to be a public health service, but people have looked to the black
church for comfort and support. They can do that."

Daffin said Bond's words will mean something if African-Americans
choose to learn from the struggle of gay men against AIDS. "It wasn't
leaders who led the attack on AIDS," Daffin said. "President Reagan
never said AIDS until late in his presidency. It was gay people in
the streets who took ownership of their own health and lives. They
did it by talking openly about what was happening. Knowing your HIV
status has been in the forefront for gay men for 25 years.

"The same thing hasn't quite happened yet in the black community. But
you can see things improving. I wish it happened a long time ago. But
we're hardly in a position to say it's too little, too late, because
if we say that, we're not going to have much of a community in 50
years. People are being forced to overcome their discomfort and deal
honestly with the disease."