AIDS' CHALLENGE TO BLACK AMERICANS

WASHINGTON - It's been 25 years since we first learned of a disease
that was killing a handful of white, gay men in a few of our nation's
largest cities -- a disease that later became known as AIDS. But
lulled by media images that portrayed AIDS mainly as a white, gay
disease, black America looked the other way: Those people weren't our
people. AIDS was not our problem. It had not entered our house.

We had our own problems to deal with, so we let those people deal with
their problem. But that was a quarter-century ago, and a lot has
changed. Now, in 2006, almost 40 million people worldwide have HIV,
and 25 million are dead. And most of those who have died and are dying
are black. That's not just because of the devastation the pandemic has
wreaked upon Africa.

The face of AIDS in the United States is primarily black as well. The
majority of new HIV infections here are black, the majority of people
who die from AIDS here are black and the people most at risk of
contracting this virus in the United States are black. AIDS is now in
our house. It's now our problem, and we must come up with solutions.

This week, a contingent of black leaders will attend the 16th
International AIDS Conference in Toronto to put AIDS in our community
at the top of the national agenda. All of black America must do the
same. Every African-American must stand with us and fight this
epidemic with every resource we have.

I realize that what we are proposing may seem an overwhelming task.
But we know it can be done. When AIDS hit the gay community, its
members couldn't afford to wait for the government to save them;
instead they worked to save themselves -- in part by using tactics and
strategies out of our civil rights playbook. AIDS is a major civil
rights issue of our time.

We cannot wait for the government to come and rescue us either -- that
help may never come. Part of our response must be to eliminate the
rabid homophobia that lives in our schools, our homes and especially
our churches. Our inability to talk about sex, and more specifically
homosexuality, is the single greatest barrier to the prevention of HIV
transmission in our community. Intolerance has driven our gay friends
and neighbors into the shadows. Men leading double lives -- on the
"down low" -- put our women at extreme risk.

We must also overcome our resistance to safer sex practices that can
help prevent the spread of AIDS, and we must ensure that our young
people know exactly what AIDS is and how to protect themselves against
it.

For black America, the time to deliver is now. We're calling on
leaders to lead. The AIDS story in the United States is partly one of
a failure to lead. Prominent blacks -- from traditional ministers and
civil rights leaders to hip-hop artists and Hollywood celebrities --
must immediately join this national call to action to end the AIDS
epidemic in black America. We must build a new sense of urgency in
black America, so that no one accepts the idea that the presence of
HIV and AIDS is inevitable.

We're calling on black America to get informed about the science and
facts about AIDS. Knowledge is a powerful weapon in this war.

We're calling on black Americans to get screened and find out their
HIV status. I have -- it took 20 minutes and was bloodless and
painless. Knowing your HIV status and the status of your partner can
save your life.

We're calling for a massive effort to address the disproportionate
impact this epidemic is having on black youth, women, injecting drug
users and men who have sex with men.

We must also pressure our government and elected officials -- at
local, state and national levels -- to be far more responsible
partners than they have been. We must lift the federal ban on funding
for needle exchange programs, which have been proven to slow the
spread of AIDS. We must also work with elected officials to promote
comprehensive, age-appropriate, culturally competent AIDS prevention
efforts that give young people the tools they need to protect themselves.

We must heed Martin Luther King Jr.'s warning, originally meant for
others but right for us now: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous
than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."