The failure of AIDS service organizations to effectively care for
us is by no means singular. Just about every institution, agent of the criminal
justice system and representative of the health care system has failed in many
ways.
Social marketing campaigns must resist merely plastering messages
like "take a test," "take a pill" or "take PrEP"
on billboards, palm cards and T-shirts. They must resist using language and
words as if following a checklist of things to say. They need to go beyond mere
social marketing and move toward creating meaning for black gay men. As black
gay men, we need nothing short of a language of resilience.
We need messages that can transcend time and space. This also calls
for engagement with art and culture. We need visual communication that isn't
limited to appealing to narrow and superficial pleasures, like beer
commercials, but also to messages and symbols that uplift us, stir us, and
build power.
Mobilizing and engaging gay men has to be rooted in art and
culture. Anyone working on behalf of gay men should know films like
"Tongues Untied" and figures like the poet and activist EssexHemphill. Taken together, these approaches can be the starting point for a new
lens in how we change direction, shift, and think more expansively.
It is not just the coloured men who need help. Here in Australia it is the younger men who are becoming infected with HIV. They seem to think that the medication available today will keep them alive. While this might be true, many HIV AIDS sufferers still have a lot of sickness. Trust your weekend is a happy one! Thanks for your visits and comments. I try to have some coloured men and/or Asians in each post. Hugs, Patrick
ReplyDeleteI don't care what kind of medication out there, I do NOT want to get his disease
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