#NNPA BlackPress

COMMENTARY: Ending HIV will only happen if Black America leads

ATLANTA VOICE — In 2011, Science Magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year” was the discovery that antiretroviral drugs were a game-changer in HIV prevention. The development of treatment as Prevention and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) ushered in the concept of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic. By combining effective treatment for people living with HIV with simple and easy biomedical prevention for people at risk of HIV infection we can eliminate HIV transmission and HIV acquisition, thereby breaking the back of the epidemic.

Published

6 years ago

September 12, 2019

Oakland Post

Raniyah Copeland (Photo by: blackaids.org)

By Raniyah Copeland

In 2011, Science Magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year” was the discovery that antiretroviral drugs were a game-changer in HIV prevention. The development of treatment as Prevention and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) ushered in the concept of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

By combining effective treatment for people living with HIV with simple and easy biomedical prevention for people at risk of HIV infection we can eliminate HIV transmission and HIV acquisition, thereby breaking the back of the epidemic.

During the 2018 State of the Union address, Trump announced a goal to end the AIDS epidemic in the United States by 2030.

While HIV/AIDS activists and communities most impacted by the HIV epidemic—Black, Latino, LGBTQI, and women of color, have plenty of reasons to confront any announcement from the administration with skepticism setting a goal to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic in eleven (11) years should be celebrated.

But like all efforts to accomplish a goal, the success of this one is dependent on the design and execution. As they say, the devil is in the details.

The underpinning of the administration’s plan is the recent surveillance data that shows 50 percent of the US epidemic is in 48 counties, Washington D.C., and San Juan, Puerto Ricco, and seven states that have a substantial rural population living with HIV.

And 60 percent of the Black HIV epidemic lies within these jurisdictions. There is no question that focusing on the jurisdictions with the highest HIV burden makes sense.

The question is will focusing on geography alone— the where—unlock the mystery of ending the HIV epidemic. Can we end the HIV/AIDS epidemic without also focusing on the other W’s—Who, what, and when?

WHO: As many as 43 percent of new HIV cases are among Black people.

Black men who have sex with men represent 80 percent of the Black epidemic, and we don’t even have accurate data on the impact for trans people, but it’s estimated that more than half of Black trans women are living with HIV.

Women, particularly women of color represent one of the fastest-growing HIV populations in the country. If the plan does not explicitly address the unique needs of these populations, it will fail.

WHAT: HIV is a virus. We finally have the biomedical tools to defeat the virus. That is easy and simple.

But the American HIV epidemic is anything but easy and simple. Social determinants of health—poverty, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, sexism, racism, fear and mistrust— drive our epidemic.

Insufficiently addressing the who and the what of the HIV epidemic has led to the HIV health disparities we see today. Only 46 percent of Black people who know they are living with HIV remain in regular care.

Black men possess a lifetime HIV risk of 1 in 20, and for Black gay men, the risk is 1 out of 2. The lifetime risk for Black women is 1/48, and more than half of trans people living with HIV are Black.

People living in the South (where the majority of Black Americans live) are more likely to be diagnosed with HIV over the course of their lifetime than other Americans.

In the haste to get this program off the ground, the input of community organizations who serve the Black community has been overlooked and ignored.

While there is a dire need for urgency, if the most impacted communities and individuals are not intentionally centered in the planning and execution of the plan, this opportunity will be squandered.

Among others, Black community leadership, HIV/AIDS activists and advocates, health departments, and other stakeholders must be convened across and within the targeted jurisdictions to develop the plan and assure that the administration understands the implications of this plan.

Leaders and stakeholders representing those bearing the greatest HIV burden need to mobilize, engage, We are mobilizing and engaging Black leaders communities across the country to build our power to ensure that we not only have a seat at the table but that it’s OUR table.

Our plan includes working with entities that shape the health of Black communities: health departments, federally qualified health centers, and the Centers for AIDS Research. This is an issue of equity and racial justice, and we are going to hold the Trump Administration accountable.

We are here to end the epidemic in the only way possible: by recognizing and addressing the structures that drive the epidemic, uniquely and unapologetically.

Copeland is the President and CEO of the Black AIDS Institute (BAI). BAI is the only national HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on Black people. Their mission is to stop the AIDS epidemic in Black communities by engaging and mobilizing Black institutions and individuals in efforts to confront HIV.

This article originally appeared in The Atlanta Voice.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

COMMENTARY: Standing Up for Those Struggling to Survive

Don't Miss

COMMENTARY: Our City, Our Schools

Oakland Post

Click to comment

#NNPA BlackPress

Fighting to Keep Blackness

BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 7, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum

Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

#NNPA BlackPress

Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.

On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.

All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

#NNPA BlackPress

Trump Moves to Dismantle Education Department

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 6, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
BlackPressUSA.com Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

The Trump administration is preparing to issue an executive order directing newly confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin dismantling the Department of Education. While the president lacks the authority to unilaterally shut down the agency—requiring congressional approval—McMahon has been tasked with taking “all necessary steps” to reduce its role “to the maximum extent permitted by law.” The administration justifies the move by claiming the department has spent over $1 trillion since its 1979 founding without improving student achievement. However, data from The Nation’s Report Card shows math scores have improved significantly since the 1990s, though reading levels have remained stagnant. The pandemic further widened achievement gaps, leaving many students behind.

The Education Department provides about 10% of public-school funding, primarily targeting low-income students, rural districts, and children with disabilities. A recent Data for Progress poll found that 61% of voters oppose Trump’s efforts to abolish the agency, while just 34% support it. In Washington, D.C., where student proficiency rates remain low—22% in math and 34% in English—federal funding is crucial. Serenity Brooker, an elementary education major, warned that cutting the department would worsen conditions in underfunded schools.

“D.C. testing scores aren’t very high right now, so cutting the Department of Education isn’t going to help that at all,” she told Hilltop News. A report from the Education Trust found that low-income schools in D.C. receive $2,200 less per student than wealthier districts, leading to shortages in essential classroom materials. The department oversees programs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), serving 7.5 million students. Transferring IDEA oversight to another agency, as Trump’s plan suggests, could jeopardize services and protections for disabled students.

The Office for Civil Rights also plays a key role in enforcing laws that protect students from discrimination. Moving it to the Department of Justice, as proposed in Project 2025, would make it harder for families to file complaints, leaving vulnerable students with fewer protections. Federal student aid programs, including Pell Grants and loan repayment plans, could face disruption if the department is dismantled. Experts warn this could worsen the student debt crisis, pushing more borrowers into default. “With funding cuts, they don’t have the materials they need, like books or things to help with math,” Brooker said. “It makes learning less fun for them.”