Several years ago as I researched the HIV/AIDS pandemic for a class that I was about to teach, I was amazed and saddened at the rates of infection in the black community. I was also saddened and angered by the reasons black women gave as to sleeping with men without insisting they use condoms. But with all of this I was most saddened and angered by the reasons blacks gave as to why they did not use condoms, did not visit their doctors on a regular basis, and what they thought about the AIDS pandemic. The rationale or denial was pervasive in the black community and unfortunately is still so today. Two of the most frightening reasons as to why blacks did not suspect AIDS as a disease that could affect them lay in the memory of the Tuskegee experiment. This experiment was the process where black men were injected with syphilis but never told about what was in either the needle or its effects. Because of this, blacks were and still are distrustful of the health care system in the United States. Another reason for the dismissal of AIDS as a problem in the black community was that blacks saw, and still see, the disease as a "white gay" disease. Given that blacks account for 12% of the population and 64% of women and 43% of men account for HIV/AIDS cases, I think there is more than reason to be concerned.

To make matters worse, a recent article in The New York Times, "Double Lives on the Down Low" proves the ignorance and denial in the black community when it comes to HIV/AIDS. In the article, we are introduced to black men who have sex with men and in many cases do not consider themselves gay. Even more insulting is the fact that these men are dating and in some cases are engaged to women. Their rationale for not sharing their sexual proclivities with these women is, "Nobody needs to know my business." Well if this is not black genocide, I don't know what is. Reading further into the article, and if you are not angry be you black or white then something is wrong, we learn that black men engage in Down Low (DL) behavior because "family means a lot to them." Is something wrong with me or do readers see this as a contradiction in terms? How can you care about family when you are sleeping with men and not telling your woman? How can you be sleeping with men and chalk it up to racism because you don't fit into the white faggot mentality? How can you sleep with men and think that because you don't kiss you are manlier than your sissy brothers who do? Who is zooming who here, gentlemen?

The article is a disturbing one and one that our so-called black leaders and everyone in the black community needs to pay attention to, especially black women. The leading cause of HIV/AIDS infection is from heterosexual sex and second is drug use. So I ask again, who is zooming who, my brothers? When are black men and women going to wake up? When is the black community going to stop blaming the white community for the actions so rampant in the black community? When are our so-called leaders going to realize that if they don't start holding the community responsible for their actions, there won't be anyone to vote for them? When is the black community going to realize that blacks are gay and everything that comes with being gay affects the black community? When is the black community going to wake up? When are they going to realize that there are more valuable resources to leave to the next generation than an epithet?