BurgerLutherKingJr
01-22-2010, 11:49 AM
Even the synopsis of this book looks like a joke:
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/research/012110.html
As the title suggests, the book tells the stories of 10 black men living with HIV. Coleman and his co-editor interviewed more than 20 black men before choosing the 10 that best represented a cross section of all the men.
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Alvester Richardson, 56, was molested by his father and cousin when he was nine years old. He became an IV drug user and was diagnosed with the virus in July of 1990.
Marion Curtis Moore, Jr., 44, was molested when he was five by an uncle in his early 20s. He was molested again when he was seven by a student three years his senior, and yet again when he was 14 by a man in his early 30s. He tested positive for the virus in February of 1990. In 1991, Moore was convicted of raping a 15-year-old boy and served 10 years in prison.
Paul Mason, 54, the son of a “serious” alcoholic military father, began drinking when he was 10 and later turned to drugs. He was diagnosed with HIV in March of 1992—and continued to have unprotected sex. He admits that he is the type of person responsible for the HIV/AIDS epidemic among black women.
Coleman says that although traumatic experiences were not the sole cause of the men contracting HIV, it is certainly one of them, along with poverty and other social issues.
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Little has been written about black men and HIV/AIDS because it is difficult for black men to talk about sexual issues, in public or private, Coleman says. The triple jeopardy that HIV-positive black men face—male, African American and HIV positive—also factors into their silence.
Coleman says there is a heightened homophobia in the black community, which stems from slavery and black men being castrated and not treated like men. He says the homophobia causes some black men to hide both their sexuality and HIV/AIDS diagnosis.
The book tells each man’s story in graphic detail, so graphic that Coleman says it was difficult to get the book published. Nonetheless, he refused to change the language because he wanted the world “to really have an inside view of each of these men’s lives.”
:mj
http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/research/012110.html
As the title suggests, the book tells the stories of 10 black men living with HIV. Coleman and his co-editor interviewed more than 20 black men before choosing the 10 that best represented a cross section of all the men.
----
Alvester Richardson, 56, was molested by his father and cousin when he was nine years old. He became an IV drug user and was diagnosed with the virus in July of 1990.
Marion Curtis Moore, Jr., 44, was molested when he was five by an uncle in his early 20s. He was molested again when he was seven by a student three years his senior, and yet again when he was 14 by a man in his early 30s. He tested positive for the virus in February of 1990. In 1991, Moore was convicted of raping a 15-year-old boy and served 10 years in prison.
Paul Mason, 54, the son of a “serious” alcoholic military father, began drinking when he was 10 and later turned to drugs. He was diagnosed with HIV in March of 1992—and continued to have unprotected sex. He admits that he is the type of person responsible for the HIV/AIDS epidemic among black women.
Coleman says that although traumatic experiences were not the sole cause of the men contracting HIV, it is certainly one of them, along with poverty and other social issues.
---
Little has been written about black men and HIV/AIDS because it is difficult for black men to talk about sexual issues, in public or private, Coleman says. The triple jeopardy that HIV-positive black men face—male, African American and HIV positive—also factors into their silence.
Coleman says there is a heightened homophobia in the black community, which stems from slavery and black men being castrated and not treated like men. He says the homophobia causes some black men to hide both their sexuality and HIV/AIDS diagnosis.
The book tells each man’s story in graphic detail, so graphic that Coleman says it was difficult to get the book published. Nonetheless, he refused to change the language because he wanted the world “to really have an inside view of each of these men’s lives.”
:mj