Soblessed already posted a beginning to the REAL reason why this disease is rampant in our communities and here it is.....
Quote:
Originally Posted by So blessed!
I'm a medical student and randomly happened to see this the night before I met a Black patient who came for an HIV/AIDS follow-up blood test/counseling. She'd had unprotected sex with her boyfriend, who turned out to be bisexual. She found out he had HIV only by chance (he never told her). This woman is young and is the sole parent of a child. When I asked her why she didn't use condoms with this man (he'd behaved aberrantly for years) she looked at me and said, "I was so tired of being lonely." Basically, she *willed* her relationship to be monogamous, and ignored the glaring signs that her boyfriend was engaging in high-risk behaviors. So she didn't protect herself.
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Don't get me wrong. I think education of the disease is important, but that has been going on for years and yet in still our infection rates are climbing. Everyone has heard the medical information, they've heard the Rae Lewis Thortons speak on what it's like to live with the disease, they've seen the Girlfriends episode, but yet and still we are dying at alarming rates and the answer (IMO) isn't as simple as throwing blame at the church or more phamlets at it.
Call me old fashioned, but I really believe that destruction of the black family is the root of MANY problems that disproportionately affect the black community today. I really do. Within the confines of a family, there is so much to learn. The way we deal with the opposite sex begins with the relationships that we have with our father. And if he is absent, there is nothing there to fill that void so we are left to fill it with something or someone else, regardless of the consequences. Take the example above, you have a woman that is willing to overlook behavior that SHE KNOW may be putting her in danger all for the temporary sense of feeling loved. It is feeling (of being wanted, to belong, to feel loved) that causes many otherwise sounded minded people to do crazy things.
If you are a person that work or interact with young women today, you can see this. Way to many young women are willing to do ANYTHING in order to get some young knuckle head boy to like them (or because he said that the loved her). In today's world, having a baby by some boy is the equivalent (during out time) of wearing his letter jacket or class ring. Somehow, someway we need to instill in us (women) a sense of self worth and self love. That our lives are worth so much more than a temporary pleasure or a false sense of security or love.
I don't know. I'm sure there isn't necessarily just ONE answer to this epidemic, but I do know that people are educated about the disease.....so why are we ignoring that information? I think that's where we need to start...with the why.
Be blessed yall!
