Up and coming comedian Kenneth McLaughlin was talking about AIDS at the Big Chill when I heard the most ignorant comment of the day on Wednesday. It outranked all the Bush hate mail I've received.
McLaughlin, who was competing to open for Steve Harvey at Ovens on Oct. 7, said his wife was in the audience. So, was his girlfriend. So, was his girlfriend's girlfriend. The audience laughed. Then he said something like AIDS was in their bed. The room fell silent.
McLaughlin talked about how black women make up more than 20 percent of new AIDS cases and black people make up 50 percent of all new cases.
Then I heard it.
"Whatever," said a woman behind me.
I whipped around to see who made the asinine statement.
McLaughlin used the stats to set up his punchline. He dates white women -- its safer.
The room erupted. I laughed too. The best comedians -- Chris Rock, Richard Pryor, to name a few -- educate while making us laugh. McLaughlin’s joke did that too.
But the "whatever" nagged me.
What is there to "whatever" about?
In case the woman who dismissed the comic reads this blog or has friends who do, I want to reinforce McLaughlin's message.
AIDS is killing black people.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, blacks account for half of all new cases of HIV. AIDS is the leading cause of death for black women between the ages of 25 to 34. It’s gotten so bad that in August, Jesse Jackson and NAACP Chairman Julian Bond called on blacks leaders to step up. I won’t even get into the failure of leaders such as Jackson and Bond to confront AIDS sooner.
So, if you are the one who said "whatever" on Wednesday, please get tested. Obviously, you don't have a clue that AIDS is killing black women just like you.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Ignorance at the Big Chill
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3 comments:
I don't really understand the "whatever" comment or what motivated it. I'm assuming she thought the statistics were bogus ones used to set the joke up? How could she be so malinformed and ignorant??
Well, Mr. McLaughlin is correct.
Although Tonya, the info I have seen from the CDC states that "it is a leading cause of death for black women between the ages of 25 to 34, not "the" leading cause.
Either way, the infection rate is too high. I guess when people are out having a good time, the last thing the want is to have to confront such a stark reality.
Tonya, I thought you were smart enough to pick up on the fact that the biggest roadblock to AIDs education/prevention problem in the black community is that faith-based organizations don't want to tackle the AIDS epidemic. Is it any wonder the Reverend Al Sharpton, The Reverend Jesse Jackson, & Louis Farrakhan are standing by silently??? Once again, your immature and shallow perspective have failed you.
I'm a hetero white man, and I mean this without an ounce of prejudice, the black community needs to shy away from these self-serving, old-school civil rights bobbleheads like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and the NAACP.
If you're waiting on any of these people to confront a problem like HIV/AIDs head on, then you're just going backwards. All they really care about are their own political/religious agendas, and other than that, they are purely out for themselves.
AIDs doesn't discriminate, and well thats something the NAACP doesn't want to talk about, because they can't blame the white man and big daddy Bush.
Just like in the audience, the black woman didn't want to hear the truth. That's standard operating proceedure for most black americans. Juan Williams speaks the truth, Bill Cosby speaks the truth. You may not like the stinging slap that comes along with the truth, but those guys are telling it like it is.
The black community needs to step away from all these "leaders" who haven't really done a goddamn thing for anybody and start listening to someone that shoots straight and isn't afraid to postulate that most of the problems in Black America, were created by Black America.
AIDS deaths are the worst kind because it's a preventable disease. In black women, it's particularly sad, because they aren't sharing needles, they get AIDS from heterosexual sex with male partners who either don't know they have it or don't care.
The good news is, (which Jameson didn't bother to tell us) is that there was a decrease in the number of HIV/AIDS cases from 2000 to 2004 for black women. That decrease was 2%. There's an overall 6% decrease for blacks in America, but what we also know is prevention works.
This and births out of wedlock are the epicenter of whats hurting Blacks overall.
Births out of wedlock are also increasing in the white community. Want to destroy a country? Keep doing this.
This is where the poverty cycle begins and it can also end there.
No matter how talented the person is who has a child out of wedlock the odds are against you AND the child breaking that cycle. There needs to be a sub stat of intentional wedlock birth and unintentional. The unintential probably is higher and is hands down why the poverty level is what it is. Education can only go so far. Don't have a child until you are emotionally,physically,economically ready. All those areas won't be perfect but being mature in those areas gives you and your child a better shot at breaking through.
I suggest reading Freakonomics as well.
One last thing..from AIDS to this poverty cycle I spoke of affect all of us. If we all don't get our house in order the America we know and love won't exist. America is only as good as its people.
Yes, the stats are disheartening but they are true. And it's also true that it's definitely not addressed in our communities, especially in churches. We have to educate each other...our friends, aunts, mothers, etc. because apparently this topic isn't on the agenda of many political leaders.
And Tonya..I would have been as shocked as you were about that comment. I know a woman (who happens to be a nurse) who doesn't believe the stats, and is sleeping with a married man. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. It's pretty sad...
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