Pretty and PrEPped

One and half years ago I started a job as an officer at a community-based organization located in Compton, California that has a very clear mission to provide services to the Black LGBTQ+ community in South LA. The banner we very proudly serve under is that we are “unapologetically Black” and that we are “South LA on purpose” because Black communities, all over the United States, continue to get the short end of the stick when it comes to getting medical and other social services that are high quality and are culturally competent. As a result, many Black Americans choose not to seek professional help when needed, preferring instead to use home remedies or simply do nothing rather than face the frustration and humiliation of dealing with a system of care that has historically brutalized and experimented on Black bodies and care givers that are, at best, willfully ignorant and at worst consciously disrespectful. Our work is to level the playing field by offering FUBU services: For-Us-By-Us. Which goes a long way, when you consider that African Americans continue to contract the virus that leads to AIDS at a disproportionately higher rate than other ethnicities.

 In 2019, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 41% of new HIV infections were in the African American community and, out of the estimated 6,400 cases of women diagnosed with HIV, 54% were African American women. While there has been a marked drop in the number of HIV infections right across the board, these are numbers still prompted both the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, first implemented in 2010 and the National EHE (Eradication of the HIV Epidemic) Initiative: A Plan for America, launched in 2019; two initiatives with the shared goals of reducing the virus by 75% by 2025 and by 90% by 2030. 

The tremendous research of recent years has shown us that HIV has become a manageable chronic condition with proper treatment. But progress with medications such as PrEP or Pre- Exposure Prophylaxis, has plateaued with only 10% of women who could benefit from its use, being prescribed it.  Which begs the question, why are so many Black women still being so impacted by HIV and AIDS when there are drugs on the market like PrEP which has proven effectiveness in the prevention of HIV transmission? While the long answer is deep with many layers to unpack, three issues rise immediately to the surface that cannot be ignored. 

Stigma and discrimination have, historically as well as currently, played a huge role in the African American Experience with Black women’s lives being expressed squarely at the intersection of both racial and sexual discrimination. Medical distrust that keeps Black folks out of the doctor’s office is fueled by American medical histories that include experiments with Syphilis and unanesthetized surgical procedures on Black women’s reproductive organs and have left a hard imprint on our Black American DNA. Lastly, awareness and access. I am a woman with an advanced degree, and I consider myself fairly well-read and informed and I didn’t know that PrEP was a drug that women could take. The vast majority of marketing and advertising is geared toward men who have sex with men (MSM), which leaves women, Black women specifically, out in the cold once more.

So, what is there to do? Educate, educate, educate. The only way to reduce stigma, dismantle racial discrimination and grow trust in our systems is through education on all sides. A tall order when one of our current political pundits is leading the charge in asserting that Black lives certainly DO NOT matter. However, it is a task that we are certainly up to and one well worth the effort. 

Our Black Lives depend on it.