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ALICIA BANKS

Public Intellectual, Educator, Scholar, Radio Producer & Host, Columnist, Singer

ELOQUENT FURY


REVOLUTIONARY AFRICAN TRUTH
EXPRESSLY FOR RADICAL INTELLECTUALS WHO SEEK KNOWLEDGE
   (*******WARNING: HAZARDOUS TO NEOCON DELUSION*******)
 

AIDS: EVASION AND EMBRACES:

“NOT IN MY FAMILY”

I have this recurring fantasy: One day, every homosexual person on the planet awakes, to find a beautiful mark upon their faces. The mark is akin to a perfect dimple or an exquisite tiny birthmark…

If this dream ever came true, there could be no more cowardly closeted gay co-conspirators, who hide their wonderful gay lives from view. Their honesty would defy the vicious myths and lies told incessantly by rabid gaybashers. Their instant visibility would become immediate victory over bigotry and homohatred. This collective revelation would lead to a courageous revolution against hateful demonization and bigoted delusion. Every gaybasher would suddenly be forced to admit that someone they truly love and respect, date or are married to, befriend or woo, or even share their blood with, is a homosexual. Their personal shock would lead to our global salvation…

I always awake from this fantasy deeply dejected by the reality checks of real world hatreds and deadbolted sexual closet doors, that are intensified by evil religions and their hypocritical zealots daily. This divine hatred of homosexuals fueled initial silences about AIDS. Those who hated gays ignored AIDS because they were told it was a gay disease, sent as a plague from God.. Today, as most AIDS victims are heterosexual black females, gaybashers continue to blame secretly gay men, rather than heterosexual and bisexual irresponsibility.

Homosexuals are everywhere. We are in literally every one of your families. Today, an organization that I revere and adore, the National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC), has officially recommended reading a specific book to celebrate World Aids Day. It is a book that my hectic schedule has forced me to delay reviewing for far too long. I proudly pause to take heed to the NBJC’s call, as I belatedly review that classic book now.

“Not In My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community” is a masterful anthology of 58 essays, edited by Gil L. Robertson IV. Its essayists include scholars and celebrities like: Herndon Davis, Dr. Jocelyn Elders, Phill Wilson, Nathan McCall, Patti Labelle , Sheryl Lee Ralph, Reverend Al Sharpton, Monique, Mr. Marcus, Jasmine Guy, and many others. Each passionate writer contributes a glimpse into the heart and soul of the most sacred spaces we know, those spaces that house our African-American loves.

The creation of this book began with Gil. L. Robertson’s own reflection upon his brother’s HIV diagnosis. All human stories are shared as we are all connected on this planet. Robertson’s story led him to the similar sagas of others. Those introspective interconnections meshed to fashion this intimate book.

Each essay tells a story. These stories are both personal and prescriptive. They share with us what AIDS has done. And, they inspire us to counteract the toll that AIDS has taken, as they instruct us to do what we must…now.

These writers represent and examine all facets of Black life as they intimately reflect upon the genocide of AIDS. Black love and family have been our salvation across oceans of time. As we currently navigate social seas made more turbulent by the increasingly treacherous tides of homohating politicians and rabidly hypochristian preachers, this book reads like a healing “Balm in Gilead”.

Black love has always been the greatest and most secure gem of global African wealth. It cannot be usurped by capitalist miners. It is a spiritual precious resource that God has made indelible within our blood. Blood ties that bind do so eternally…

Each essay evinces that love is stronger than hate. Black love is the antidote for all poisons, even those fashioned inside United States’ government labs at Fort Detrick, Maryland. (For more information on the evil origins and the biowarfare of AIDS read “BET: Beware - Educating Teens???” and “George F. Will on AIDS: Don’t Believe the Racist Hype!!!” herein.) This blessed book proves that divine intervention is often garnered genetically, even in defiance of genetically designed genocide.

These essays are as honest as documented articles in medical journals, which once openly solicited the creation of a “turbo-cancer like virus”. They are as raw as unsafe sex that infects droves of teens with the HIV virus daily. They are as diverse as the universal and arbitrary AIDS victims that have perished for decades globally. They are as haunting as national hate crime bills that brazenly ignore homosexual corpses. They are as passionate as scientific lies that vainly dare to attempt to live forever. They are as real as the fact that the truth is always its own best defense, even when that truth is fatal and frightening.

“Not In My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community” is a celebration of what we African-Americans can and must do to heal ourselves. All wounds heal best in open air. This book reads like a sacred public gathering of warrior sages, who eloquently bear their griot souls, about an urgent topic that most persons suicidally evade. Like Audre Lorde said, “Our silence will never protect us.” I urge you to obey the NBJC and revel inside the revolutionary noises in the pages of this necessary and classic book today.

Below are a few excerpts from the healing essays inside “Not In My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community”:

“The first face of AIDS I knew was that of my younger brother, who died in 1991, at the age of 28.

I grew up with a sister who was gay. She had to struggle with bias as a black person, bias as a woman, and bias within the black community as a lesbian. Witnessing the trinity of pain she faced made me more open-minded than most.

When my friend was sick, he had told me that he longed for touches, hugs, and kisses, because people had stopped touching him.

The first gay people I knew were in the church.

There are some church and religious leaders who are also guilty of falsely identifying AIDS as the ‘gay disease’.

Examine the goods, just like you inspect fruits, vegetables, and other food items.

This virus doesn’t care which group you think you’re part of, or which group you choose to blame.

It is totally unacceptable that when African-American journalist Gwen Ifill asked Vice President Dick Cheyney what the administration planned to do about the fact that black women are 13 times more likely to die of AIDS than white women, he didn’t know what she was talking about.

More than 42 percent of all new infections are from people who don’t know they’re passing the virus on to others.

It is difficult to tell our men to use condoms. We are punished for that. It is difficult to deny sex. We are beaten for that. It is difficult to ask for monogamy. We are lied to for that.”

For more information about the legendary National Black Justice Coalition see: http://www.nbjcoalition.org/

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