Just being aware of a threat is only the first step in confronting it. In order to interrupt the devastation that HIV has had in African American communities, we must also understand the political and social forces that help shape the epidemic—as well as our nation’s response to it.
The Time Is Now! explains, in plain language, both the history of those forces and the challenges that lay ahead. It begins with the public care and treatment system that policymakers and activists worked together to create in the early stages of the epidemic, explaining how that system works and walking readers through the challenges it now faces.
The report then highlights the most pressing prevention challenges for the Black community. It identifies the recurring barriers to stopping HIV’s spread in our neighborhoods, and discusses how political factors both inside and outside of our community have frustrated the search for solutions.
As with all of our publications, this report speaks not merely to AIDS experts, but to those members of our community who may have just become aware of the problem and now need information on how and where to get involved. Getting this information out, and getting African Americans involved, has never been more crucial.
Each year, the epidemic worsens in Black neighborhoods, and each year the national commitment to interrupting its spread and keeping those already infected healthy further lags. For Black America, the moment of truth has arrived. If we are to survive the AIDS epidemic, we are going to have to gather all of our resources and marshal them for the political struggles that lay ahead.