HIV/AIDS remains the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 25 to 34 and the fourth cause of death for African-American women ages 35 to 54. HIV/AIDS rose 17% among US women from 2001 to 2005.

Abstaining, being faithful, and using a condom are the ABCs of prevention being preached by Bindiya Gillenwater Patel of the Washington-based Global Campaign for Microbicides. I’m happy that Patel isn’t touting circumcision as the “c” in the ABCs, but I think that more than this simplistic approach needs to be adopted in order to save the lives of African-American women.

It’s reported that 75% of HIV-positive African-American women become infected through heterosexual sex, but that’s an essentially useless statistic, used to make us shift the focus of the AIDS crisis and un-gay the movement. There is no mention of the means through which the male sexual partners became HIV-positive. Studies have shown that high-rates of incarceration of Black men and the lack of condoms in prisons contribute to the high-rates of African-American men becoming HIV-positive and thus infecting Black women.

More than abstinence, monogamy, and condom use need to occur to keep African-American women healthy and HIV-negative. Improving our access to quality healthcare, providing universal healthcare for all in the US, a reduction of the incarceration rates of African-American men, and a shift in US policy that provides access to free condoms both IN and OUT of prison would be a start.

Visibility is also crucial; making it known that HIV and AIDS are not just inflicting Black people on the African continent, but infecting Black people, especially Black woman, in the US at comparable rates.

And then it is crucial that we address the issues of low self-esteem, self-hatred, and other mental health issues that make African-American women participate in risky sexual behaviors.

Let us not forget rape, prostitution, and poverty. African-American women may be becoming HIV-positive through heterosexual sex, but that doesn’t always mean that the sex is consensual. We need to take into consideration how poverty often dictates the sexual behavior and forced economic choices of African-American women. To simplify HIV contraction to the ABCs is to miss entirely the socio-economic reality of African-American women, making it impossible to effectively stem the high-rates of HIV infection that plague our community.

http://www.alternet.org/sex/55182/

you can find me at kameelahwrites!
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to quote dead prez, ‘it’s bigger than hip hip’

fundamental problems with the ‘well, what do you expect when rappers talk like THAT’ (read: ‘you *black people, but more specifically black women* have no (legitimate) right to be upset or offended because no one respects your nappy headed ass now so stop acting indignant as you wait for your respect’): politics of distraction and historical revision which ultimately results in myopic analysis.

first, the language of mainstream hip hop cannot be excused under any circumstances. but, this is really a question of diverting attention from imus to hip-hop culture. imus acts as if he is a 8 year old child who heard a bad word in the school yard and innocently repeated it and as such should carry no responsibility. everyone responds and jumps on the bandwagon on blame hip hop and imus in chilling in the background laughing at critics black and white alike who have completely moved the center and have allowed him to blend into the background as just another victim of the hypnotizing trance of hip hop and its predatory tentacles. let’s play history correctly and remind ourselves that the images of black women did not ORIGINATE within hip hop, rather these images originated in scientific discourse and white racism hundreds of years ago and are often punctuated by the capturing and carnavalizing of difference and inferiority most notably with sara baartman (otherwise known as the hottentot venus). as william jelani cobb says

‘the sad truth is tha thip hop artists’ verbal and visual renderings of black women are now virtually indistinguishable from those 19th century white slave owners…’

i could go on length about the construction of black female sexuality in the white male imagination since the beginning europe ‘contact’ with black folks and the justification of systemic sexual abuse built upon these images. but i wont do that because no one wants to read my academic treatise and i am far from interested in investing the time in explaining a point which i know many are aware of but have strategically discarded in favor of a more popular ‘blame it on hip hop’ cop out. (but, i will point you towards a reading list). so really if imus wants someone to blame, then blame the construction of black female sexuality of scientific discourse, fiction, movies, and other discursive mediums that originated not with hip-hop music which i remind you is only about 30 years old and look to the centuries old racist and misgynistic images produces throughout the west. this does not lift responsibility off the shoulders of hip hop fools who choose to continue peddling these images to accumulate capital, it is just to say that if you want to start pointing fingers, get your history correct.

and on this note of peddling these images of black women, we should be reminded that america, nor is the world some immaculate haven of gender equity and racial equality upon which hip hop music imposes some aberrant existence on. if anything hip hop music is reflective as well as constitutive of the very sexism, misogyny, and racism that pervades our society. again, i am not apologizing for some hip hop music (because remember hip hop is not a monolithic art form), but i like nuanced analysis and grow impatient with the blame hip hop for everything. racism, sexism, patriarchy etc. existed prior to hip hop, so those who make the illogical jump to blame hip hop for these long standing systems and articulations need to take a step back and learn a lesson in sequencing. this actually isn’t one of those ‘did the chicken or egg come first?’–there is no mystery here.

Imus
Hip-Hop
Sexism
Racism
History

Maya Angelou was born on 4 April 1928, as Marguerite Johnson. She knows why the caged bird sings, and is only one of two American poets to write and read an inauguration poem for a president. The other one was Robert Frost for John Kennedy. Happy Birthday to Maya.

Maya has said,

• ++History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, however, if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
• ++I want all my senses engaged. Let me absorb the world’s variety and uniqueness.
• ++For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.
• ++Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told, ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’
• ++Courage is fear that has said its prayers.
• ++I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.
• ++Some critics will write ‘Maya Angelou is a natural writer’ - which comes right after being a natural heart surgeon.
• ++We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.

A short biography of Ms Angelou says, “Internationally respected poet, writer and educator, Maya Angelou has given us such best-selling titles as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in My Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and The Heart of a Woman. Multi-talented, she produced and starred in the great play Cabaret for Freedom and starred in The Blacks. She wrote the original screenplay and musical score for the film Georgia, Georgia and was both author and executive producer of a five-part television miniseries, Three Way Choice.

Miss Angelou’s accomplishments have earned her the La Home Journal Woman of the Year award in communication an Matrix Award in the field of books from Women in Communication She received the Golden Eagle Award for her documentary, Americans in the Arts, produced by PBS. She is one of the women admitted into the Director’s Guild. In 1974, she was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bi-Centennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year.

Her personal outreach to improve conditions for women in Third World, primarily in Africa, has helped change the live thousands less privileged. Here is where she gives with all her heart and soul. [Source]” And lastly, here is another of her poems:

Tags:
Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Still I Rise

The Salon article, “Oprah’s ugly secret”, by Peter Birkenhead, paints a creepy image of the America’s iconic black woman. Sure, Oprah is an easy target, she’s rich, black, female, etc. She can do no right, even when she does, but Ms. Winfrey’s endorsement of a book called “The Secret” and Birkenhead’s analysis of it, really opened my eyes.

“The Secret”, written by Rhonda Byrne, espouses the pseudo-philosophy that thinking positively attracts positivity and thinking negatively attracts negativity. The book is based on the Law of Attraction and is touting the Law’s ability to make you rich, thin, successful, happy, not hungry, etc. You just need to visualize what you want and you will get it. And therein lies the problem.

As Birkenhead puts it, “Why ‘venality’? Because, with survivors of Auschwitz still alive, Oprah writes this about ‘The Secret’ on her Web site, “the energy you put into the world — both good and bad — is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day.” “Venality,” because Oprah, in the age of AIDS, is advertising a book that says, “You cannot ‘catch’ anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought.” “Venality,” because Oprah, from a studio within walking distance of Chicago’s notorious Cabrini Green Projects, pitches a book that says, “The only reason any person does not have enough money is because they are blocking money from coming to them with their thoughts.”

Is Oprah really blaming the victims here? Is she really saying the folks of Cabrini Green Projects deserve to be there? By her endorsement of “The Secret” is she really saying the Cabrini Green residents are destined to live in abject poverty because they aren’t thinking positively? Is she really saying folks are poor, hungry, illiterate, victims of rape and genocide, because they’re not thinking positively? Or is she just lending her name to an unfortunately, wildly successful book of “anti-intellectual” snake oil?

One fascinating thing I took from this article is how “The Secret’s” “philosophy” impacts my perception of Oprah’s new school for girls in South Africa. I have always been suspect of the wealth and extravagance of the school, especially because it is located among abject black poverty, but I did not know that the government of South Africa withdrew its support of the school for the very same reason. “The academy is a controversial enough project in South Africa that the government withdrew its support, because of the amount of money that’s been spent on its well-reported, lavish design — money that could have gone instead to creating perfectly fine schools that served many, many more students than the 350 who will be making use of spa facilities at the academy.”

“Oprah’s ugly secret” is one of the best articles I have read about Ms. Winfrey and it really made me think about her motivations. Oprah certainly wants to paint herself as the world’s black goddess spiritual guru, but does she really believe the victim-hating crap in “The Secret”?

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2007/03/05/the_secret/index.html

This is me 15 minutes after watching The Last King of Scotland. The promotional blurb is annoying. It claims to recreate Uganda under Amin’s regime. This movie doesn’t recreate anything, least of Uganda under Amin. That said, however, it was good…for a Hollywood movie. You don’t have to look closely to realize that you have seen this movie before, or maybe you saw it in real life, you can’t really be sure. But basically, all the elements are there, a white man’s random foray into Africa, said white man becomes center of Africa’s universe, white man interacts with despotic, insane African leader etc etc. The only good thing I can say is that we are given fleeting moments where the traditional roles of black villian, white hero are blurred. And we see that both men are holding the shitty end of the stick because both parties have crapped up sufficiently on their respective ends. Do pardon the imagery. The suffering and terror of the Amin regime is almost the background tale, the spotlight is on the Scottish doctor. But hey, directors make their choices, and I can see how this choice can be justified.

But I think my main concern is with the presentation of women. Much like Casino Royale, I found this movie a tad misogynistic. The Scottish doctor lands in Uganda for his great African adventure, and even before he can put his bags down, he is in bed with some random Ugandan woman who is never given a name, a personality, she is just a pair of spread open legs. Later, we see the sexual tension between the noble doctor and his British co-worker. But she is married, she makes the right decision, she walks away. Triumph for her eh! Next on the list of women is the president’s wife. She is the beautiful, “African” woman without whom a white man’s foray into the dark continent would not be complete. Her role in the movie is to spread her legs for him. But like all women, especially all exotic, “other” women, her body betrays her. She gets pregnant (birth control anyone?) and her vengeful husband makes an example of her by severely mutilating her body. Her limbs are chopped off. So not only did she never have agency, but now no mobility, in fact no life, because she is murdered. And so once again the “other” woman is exotified, her body is used and then she must be discarded, for what other use can she have?

The Last King of Scotland is a strange movie. I think I have a love/hate relationship with it for now. It doesn’t feed us with fanciful images of some of the more outlandish horrors that have been attributed to Idi Amin. It does, however show how a mind can be a mess, and how well this can be hidden, and how frightening when it is revealed.

Africa