By Reggie Legend
AIDS in Black America: I’m Liftin’ Your Skirts
In a move that may shock America, ABC News aired a primetime special report on the epidemic of AIDS within the African-American community. "Out of Control: AIDS in Black America" primarily focused on the fact that African-Americans constitute roughly 50% of AIDS cases; more to the point, out of all women infected with the disease, reports exist that show 68% consist of Black women. While such staggering numbers should all too familiar for us, they seem to be conveniently skirted by the very people whom are supposed to address and represent the issues affecting society.
Aside from raising awareness, this program boldly exposed a dirty and problematic secret: even those at the highest sociopolitical level remain conveniently ignorant and distanced from the ravaging effects of AIDS. This was most evident in the vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards where both illustrated oversights of obliviousness to the plight of HIV positive Black women in America.
If you missed this program which aired on Thursday, August 24, 2006, you missed an extremely poignant and sobering piece. A piece which has afforded a second chance to readdress the ideologies behind the ignorance of our government which publicly disrespected and disturbed the existence of AIDS among African-Americans on the night of October 5, 2004:
In America, “Black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of AIDS than their [white] counterparts”
-- Gwen Ifill
"I have not heard those numbers with respect to African- American women.
I was not aware that it was -- that they're an epidemic"
-- Vice President Cheney
"On the Outskirts of Ignorance"a.k.a.
"I’m Liftin’ Your Skirts"
So the Vice President
of these United States
Didn't know that this AIDS disease
is heightened in my race?
Our women have the highest stake –
and he didn't know that statistic?!!
Though African-Americans are
70% of all female cases,
This @ss’ awareness failed to place this…
This data is famous –
even rock hermits know the specifics!
Where was AIDS back in the day
When Black slaves got tragically raped?
That would’ve been hapless fate
for his great-great-grandfathers.
If HIV had been created by mankind then,
Cheney’s stakes would be mad high then…
As a cure could ratify the sin
of date-raping our land's daughters.
But since he turned and copped
a blind eye and spit in mine,
I'm liftin’ skirted topics sky high
with Dick in mind.
It's not just his justice that's blind –
social bifocals need to be added
to the Senate, too.
They've ridden for so long
in tinted Cadillacs
That they've developed
intense cataracts…
That's why this written battle ax extracts
with no local anesthetics used.
Just imagine the impact
of this epidemic
If it'd been in the past when
slave masters sexed our kindred.
Their best would’ve been
infected and blacklisted –
Jefferson would've been a
definite denizen of an AIDS clinic.
It’s interwoven in his lineage,
I’m not outing Thomas –
It was his stolen privilege to prick
his black roses' flowering content…
While Big Momma’s momma couldn’t
even inherit his lousy monik’ –
just the shame of being a temptress.
But just envision it – such justice
would've been splendid.
For every 10 Black women that died –
7 white lives would've also ended.
If you're offended or defensive, good –
I intended to piss you off.
My eulogizing something
so mortally fatal
Is how Edwards and Cheney utilized it
as a sordid debate angle…
They both evaded it with the same bull –
forget politics, John and Dick,
I must insist that you both screw off.
Neither wanted to address
the dire straits
Of Black women infected
in the United States.
That fight was fake –
democracy's a hypocrisy.
If I took the time, I could use
logic to catalog it,
But that'd only prove
to be catastrophic…
I'd be glad if Bush lost the office –
but there will always be a
philosophy of forgotten needs.
That's why I'll always write hostilely
As long as poor folks struggle
with the cost of hospital fees.
I believe in that like the Apostle's Creed –
forget a presidential oath!
I felt so dissed and neglected
When this d*ck, Cheney missed
and blatantly disrespected
The fate of my women
with AIDS so reckless –
with numbers rising since
the 90's in exponential growth.
As johns and d**ks, they'd
better pay attention
The second that AIDS is mentioned.
Cheney’s daughter is gay,
he may want to listen –
she may date interracially, too.
Why does it have to touch home first
Before these folks attest
to a subject's whole worth?…
How can they corrupt the whole earth
yet have the nerve to turn away
as they rape our seeds, too?
Click here to discuss "Out of Control: AIDS in Black America" in the Ill Community.
© 2006 Reggie Legend
Steel Waters, Inc.
reggielegend@hotmail.com