maintaining income, finding their next meal and ensuring a safe place to sleep at night.
Lack of Support Communities
Although interracial dating is a practice that’s starting become more widely embraced in the United States, black people remain the minority group that has relationships outside of their race the least at 19%. This means that the majority of black people have sexual partners who are within their race and more than likely have the same limited experiences and localized view of life. And given the smaller population size, once the black community was exposed to HIV it spread quickly and the negative impact was and continues to be greater.
This means that black people who choose other black partners are more likely to come in contact with someone who is HIV-positive than other people who date within their race and have the same stunted knowledge of health. This is especially true in the gay LGBTQA communities as the Center for Disease Control has reported findings that more than 1 in 4 black gay and bisexual men and 1 in 2 black transgender women have tested positive for HIV, compared to .06% of the general population.
With that being said, although these are challenging realities, there are resources available for those in need. Please visit Aids Source for more information.
Jasmine Browley holds an MA in journalism from Columbia College Chicago, and has contributed to Ebony, Jet and MADE Magazine among others. So, clearly, she knows some stuff. Follow her digital journey @JasmineBrowley.