My sorority, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., hosted “Silence is Death: The Red Ribbon Forum” Tuesday. This forum detailed the holistic affects of HIV/AIDS from the perspective of an educator and three infected people. One question instigated discussion about why African Americans were beginning to be so disproportionately affected by the disease when compared to other races. The answer that the educator gave seemed so heavily laden with lateral thought that I have decided to just write about her thoughts as my article this week.
Let’s begin with the question again: Why are African Americans—African American women in particular—so disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS when compared to women of other races? It could because the men in their lives are behind bars. Let’s outline this point further as the educator did.
1. African American women are subjected to stress just as any other race. However, the reasons why African American women are stressed are often due to different things than other races. For instance, a lower socio-economic status often plays a part. This stress then depresses the immune system of the women.
2. On top of that, the media often hypes the fact that HIV/AIDS is spreading through the African American community like an epidemic.
3. Then there is such thing as a psychosomatic disorder, which is a disease that is caused or worsened by one’s thoughts (http://www.depression-guide.com/psychosomatic-disorder.htm). So when these women have sexual intercourse, they may also think about or worry about how susceptible they are to HIV/AIDS during the act, heightening their ability to contract a disease because of psychosomatic influence.
4. Meanwhile, the devastating trend that is leading a large percentage of the African American men to jail or prison is continuing, leaving more men in jail and leaving fewer men behind for women that are available for monogamous relationships. Thus, the women may have to share men (unknowingly or knowingly) for intercourse while they wait for their loved ones to leave jail. Having a relationship with a man who is not monogamist increases the chances of these women getting HIV/AIDS (among other STDs).
So that’s: African American women could be sleeping with men who have HIV/AIDS while dealing with psychosomatics, while being stressed and having a depressed immune system. All these things collectively increase the chances of these women contracting the disease, but not being in a monogamous relationship increases the chances even more so than the other reasons. That’s why I introduced the answer to the initial question of why African America women are so disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS when compared to women of other races as because their men are behind bars.
I thought the conversation with the educator was phenomenal. While I knew these components increased the chances of African American women getting the disease separately, I never considered their interplay with each other. Hence, I considered it lateral thinking.
