Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke talks about the importance of safe sex.
When New York-based prophylactics company b Condoms approached me about doing a safe-sex campaign, it was a partnership opportunity I didn't want to pass up. While I've always been a champion for getting freaky, African-Americans need learn to protect themselves first. We're number one in murders, gun violence, poverty, unemployment, teen pregnancies, and getting sexually transmitted diseases. I'm tired of being number one.
In March, the Henry J. Keiser Family Foundation released a study that blacks account for more new HIV infections and HIV-related deaths than any other racial/ethnic group in the United States. Of the 1.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the country, 510,000 are African-Americans. Even though blacks represent only 12 percent of the U.S. population, they accounted for 44 percent of new HIV infections in 2010.
The New York and Miami metropolitan areas had the greatest numbers of blacks living with an HIV diagnosis. Contracting HIV/AIDS is the second bigger killer in the African-American community after gun violence.
Teen pregnancies among young black girls is going through the roof. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancies, Florida is among the top five states with the highest rates of non-Hispanic black teenaged girls getting pregnant. Black women also have the highest rate of abortions, accounting for 30 percent of all abortions, according to the 2010 Census.
That's why I didn't blink at the opportunity to hand out 6,000 free Platinum XL b Condoms to several social service agencies in Miami. If I could hand out a million, I would.
African-American celebrities have to take an active role in changing people's mindset.
We need to talk about preventing sexually transmitted diseases and unplanned pregnancies by advocating safe sex. Young people in the inner city can't even take care of themselves. How are we going to let them bring a child into this world when they don't have the resources to have a family, like a steady job.
We can't count on our elected officials and the lobbyists who get them into office. They have allowed gun violence, sexually transmitted diseases, and unplanned pregnancies to destroy our community so they can keep African-Americans down in the dumps. It's part of a sinister plan to keep blacks in the inner city from realizing they are being used and abused.
If I can convince young African-Americans that it is OK to use a condom, then it's a small step in ending our own genocide.
