From: ww@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: AIDS Report Reveals Deep Racism
Date: 27 Jan 93 04:51:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:yLi1XB22w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-813409048:000:4268
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!ww    Jan 26 20:51:00 1993


Subject: AIDS Report Reveals Deep Racism
From: nyxfer!ww (Workers World Service)


Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit


AIDS REPORT REVEALS DEEP RACISM

By Shelley Ettinger

The National Commission on AIDS has acknowledged that racism is a
key factor contributing to the spread of the AIDS crisis.

According to the commission's latest report, released Jan. 10, 
African Americans and Latinos now make up 46 percent of people 
with AIDS. That is more than double their proportion in the U.S. 
population.

Some 160,000 people in the U.S. have died of AIDS--one every 
seven minutes. One person is newly infected with the HIV virus 
every minute. By 1995 the total number of AIDS deaths is expected
to have doubled.

Now that the Centers for Disease Control have finally expanded 
the AIDS definition to include the illnesses most common in women
with AIDS, the official statistics on AIDS in the Black and 
Latino communities are expected to skyrocket.

Yet the government is cutting back rather than expanding funding 
for AIDS programs. People with AIDS, activists and advocates say 
the U.S. government is guilty of murder. And they're watching 
closely to see whether, how and how quickly President Bill 
Clinton moves to back up his promises for AIDS action.

DYING DISPROPORTIONATELY

In 1990 and 1991 AIDS cases increased 11.5 percent among Latinos 
and 10.5 percent among African Americans. Of the estimated 1 
million HIV-positive people, fully half are Black and Latino.

This pattern holds true both among gay men, who constitute the 
majority of people with AIDS, and heterosexuals. On Jan. 9 San 
Francisco held a citywide moment of silence to mark its 10,000th 
AIDS death--a Latino gay man.

Most women and children with AIDS are Black and Latina. The AIDS 
death rate is 10 times higher for Black women, and eight times 
higher for Latinas, than for white women. In New York, with the 
most AIDS cases in the country, the disease is the number-one 
cause of death among reproductive age Black and Latina women. 

Debra Frazier-Howe of New York's Black Leadership Commission on 
AIDS told the Black community newspaper Amsterdam News that 
"society's racism is affecting prevention-funding efforts among 
people of color."

"As this disease gets more Black and Brown," Frazier-Howe said, 
"the funding gets cut back."

In fact, the new New York state budget includes a freeze on AIDS 
funding. The federal Centers for Disease Control have slashed 
funding for prevention and education. Congress also cut National 
Institutes of Health funds for clinical AIDS research.

POVERTY, RACISM

Frazier-Howe and other Black and Latino AIDS activists charge the
government continues to virtually ignore the extent of the crisis
in the oppressed communities. They also tie the situation to the 
economic crisis, the lack of health care, and conditions of 
poverty and desperation.

In this racist society joblessness and homelessness hit Third 
World communities hardest. For example, the AIDS Commission 
estimates that up to half of all people with AIDS are homeless. 
Many, possibly most, are Third World people.

The commission's report charges the federal government "has 
virtually ignored the AIDS housing crisis" and "has resisted 
almost all efforts by community-based organizations ... to meet 
the housing needs of people with HIV disease."

People of color are also less likely to have health insurance. 
Because of that, they are diagnosed later, if at all. So the new 
figures may actually understate the extent of the AIDS crisis.

AIDS in the oppressed communities is also a direct result of the 
lack of funding for drug treatment programs. AIDS Commission 
members say universal access to drug treatment on demand is 
crucial to stopping the spread of AIDS.
 
                               -30-

Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 West 21st
Street, New York, NY 10010; e-mail: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org or
workers@mcimail.com.


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