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Paying for War but ignoring African-American women and AIDS
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by Kathlyn Stone, W A M M
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HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for African-American women between the ages of 25 and 44.
Over seven years (not including FY 09), according to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has spent $11.8 billion on foreign aid and diplomatic operations in Afghanistan. The Pentagon in FY 08 has spent $145 billion in Iraq, about $8.4 billion per three week period.
Taxpayers in Minnesota alone will have paid $15.8 billion for total Iraq war spending approved though Feb. 2009. For the same amount of money, in Minnesota, the following could have been provided: 4,532,602 people with health care for one year.
Take a moment and let that sink in. During the ages when the more fortunate among us are starting, then advancing in our careers, and frequently balancing work and families, a generation of American women are getting sick and dying from a preventable disease.
In her article,”This era of black women and AIDS,” published Dec. 4 on The Black Commentator, feminist scholar and activist Rev. Irene Monroe points out many disturbing facts surrounding black women and HIV/AIDS. She also makes it crystal clear that this is an issue of not only race but gender disparity.
Why is the prevalence of AIDS among African-American women so well hidden in our society? Why can the government spend billions for the war machine but allow women here at home to die?
Monroe pinpoints the reasons: Failed national leadership, lack of support in the church community, homophobia, and the legacy of slavery. We must also point to misplaced priorities, choosing empire building over building a compassionate health care system here at home that could provide decent health care services equitably to every U.S. citizen.
Suzanne Brooks, co-founder of the Sacramento, Calif.-based group Justice 4 All Includes Women of Color called these times “a holocaust against black women.” Brooks pointed out that not only is this demographic facing the highest rate of increases in HIV/AIDS, African-American women also have the highest suicide rates; the highest death rates from curable diseases; the greatest likelihood of death from heart disease; and the fastest growing rates of incarceration.
Justice 4 All sponsored a conference in September aimed at establishing a National Women of Color Agenda and reports receiving personal commitments from President-Elect Barack Obama that these pressing issues will be addressed.
Brooks and the group’s co-founder, Akilah Uwimana Hatchett, have also appealed to other organizations, such as the non-profit group WomenCount—now campaigning for a Presidential Commission on Women— to include the health crisis in their priorities. “Politicians do respond to the will of the people when that will is expressed in sustained, organized actions,” said Brooks. Let it be so for the sake of an entire generation of black women. WAMM activists must continue to shout it loudly: MONEY FOR HEALTH CARE – NOT FOR WAR! |
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© 2009 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete March 2009 Index - click here
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