solanasaurus.com

I watched TV at a friend’s house and was pleased to see the documentery “Out of Control: AIDS in Black America” on Primetime (ABC). Reporter Terry Moran presented it as an underreported story that politicians and activists would have acted on more forcefully if affected White people to the same degree.

“Black Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but account for over 50 percent of all new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. That infection rate is eight times the rate of whites. Among women, the numbers are even more shocking—- almost 70 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV-positive women in the United States are black women.”

Some of the conclusions were a little simplisitc in blaming popular culture (hip hop) for glorifying multiple sex partners. But there was adequate wrath for political leaders – both black and white – who have let so many people down. Jesse Jackson got grilled.

The irksome thing was that the film seemed angled to inform White people of what’s going on among Black, as though it’s now something America’s non-Black population only needs to worry about when it boomerangs back.