In 1987, the World Health Organization (WHO) established the Special Programme on AIDS; the International Council of AIDS Organizations (ICASO) was formed; and azidothymidine (AZT) -- the first therapy for AIDS -- was approved for use in the United States.
When AIDS showed up on the American health radar, it was unfortunately classified as a white gay males disease. Because of this, and the stigma AIDS created, the gay community rose to the challenge and began to take action. They educated themselves, formed organizations like the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York that serves all people who have AIDS or are HIV positive, and fought to have money allocated for research. As AIDS began to wane in the white gay community in the United States and began to rear its ugly head in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, it seems that much of the discourse on the topic has been relegated to the medical community, not the citizens that are really being affected by this disease.
Flash forward to 2001. According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), over 36 million people are living with HIV and over 5 million contracted it in 2000 -- 600,000 of them being children. So, what does this have to do with African Americans? A lot. The black community has been virtually silent when it comes to AIDS and like the slogan that became prominent in the late 80's, "SILENCE = DEATH." The only time I really recall a major discussion on the topic amongst blacks were when three things occurred; (1) Magic Johnson tested HIV positive, (2) the rapper Easy E died, and (3) Arthur Ashe tested positive and passed away.
