Do they have one for income classes or just based on race?

-Rudey

Am I the only person who doesn't care that he doesn't want to speak to the NAACP? Should we even expect him to? And if he did we would say "oh, its only because elections are coming up":rolleyes:

I've known that for quite some time. Even as early as the late 1980s, African-American women were contracting the virus at faster rates than the general population--because the earliest risk groups, gay men and hemophiliacs, were protecting themselves and their infection rate dropped.

A lot of us are wondering why anyone should care. But there will still be those that express shock and outrage.

They say he's the first sitting President since whosiwhatsit to not make an appearance at the NAACP convention during his presidency.

I would counter by saying this isn't the same NAACP that all the other presidents visited.

BINGO!!!!

The new infection and diagnosis rate among gay men is increasing, and I thought that they had passed the rates of African Americans. Plus there are people who fit into two groups like gay African American men. I haven't been up to date about the AIDS epidemic in the USA since I don't know any people with it anymore.

I must be honest and say that I think that it's an age thing. Since you are still a student and were in college not so long ago, you probably had more access to information. When I was in school, they had programs about safe/safer sex education and condom distribution. It's difficult to get the word out to people who are no longer in a college or university environment. In other words, AIDS education is no longer in my face and readily available. The last conversation that I have had about AIDS and HIV was when I went to my doctor who told me in explicit detail how to protect myself. She said that she tells all of her patients that because she has an obligation to protect them and keep them informed. I wonder how many doctors do that. I wonder how many of the new diagnosed cases actually have regular medical exams.

I hear your point..but I think alot of people choose not to be informed. after college its all about how much you want to seek out information. ..if all you do is feed your mind with non-current events stuff i.e. not watching the news/reading the paper..only reading Fiction..etc....you will be in the dark about a lot of things.

AA women were getting the virus @ higher rates because of all the brothers on the down low.

Good point. I agree that we all have a responsibility to educate ourselves. The problem is that some segments of the population and some places in the world do not seek out or do not have access to accurate information.

I'm actually going to say no with that one. Plenty of my friends--who were in college at the same place and time that I was--chose not to listen to the safer sex information. I had a friend that--in 2003!--would gauge whether or not to use a condom based on how her partners looked. My parents, who were in the arts in the early 80s and saw an amazing amount of their friends DIE, made sure my sister and I knew how to protect ourselves. That, not the access you have in school, often makes all of the difference. Also, every OB/GYN I've gone to in 7 years has given the AIDS talk--and how AA women have historically been one of the fastest-growing groups with the disease.

On a side note--my sister, who's about your age (if not a little older) has stayed very aware of what's going on in that field. Some of us just have to be aware of what's going on in our communities. It's not about age in this specific case.

The rate of infection for gay men has surpassed that of AA women (because the shadow of AIDS doesn't haunt young gay men the way it did 10, 15, or 20 years ago), but that's fairly recent.