Aids & Racism are Intimately Connected

Today, as you may know, is World Aids Day. I have also recently discovered it is Blog Against Racism Day.

I believe the two are intimately related, and so they are sharing a post today.

How are they related? For one thing, according to AIDS Statistics, AIDS and HIV disproportionately affect non-white communities in the US. Now, I think very few people are hoping for some kind of Darwinian "culling" of non-white populations, but there is a tangible element of racism that is perpetuating the real suffering of people around the world.

A quick mental exercise
Imagine there was an AIDS epidemic among the white population of Texas, comparable to the one in Botswana. That means 37.3% of all adults, and a significant percentage of the children were infected with HIV/AIDS. In other words, based on current population data, out of 15,967,916 non-Hispanic white Texans, 5,908,128 would be living with HIV/AIDS. Can you imagine the difference in response to the crisis?

Even if we think we aren't affected, we are. They both harm us all, whether our skin is pink or brown, whether we are ill or healthy, we all live in the same world, and I'm sure we can agree that our world would be a better place without AIDS or Racism.

Let's fight both AIDS and Racism!

More on AIDS in Africa, The vulnerable not being protected