Examining Monkeypox through Black Activism in the AIDs Crisis

Since Monkeypox became another disease to worry about, people have been comparing it to HIV/AIDs when looking at how America is treating the outbreak. There seem to be valid similarities, so let's take a look at the AIDs crisis in Black America. As Black people got AIDs at a higher rate than other groups, they organized and advocated for themselves when no one else would. That activism is the subject of To Make the Wounded Whole: The African American Struggle Against HIV/AIDS by this episode's guest Professor Daniel Royles.

Different groups across the country took radically different approaches to address the AIDs crisis in Black America. Some worked specifically with gay Black men while others had wider targets like all Black people or gay men of color. Others advocated for Black women and some even did international work in Africa. The Nation of Islam even shows up in the story.

So, let's go back to the 1980s and 1990s to understand what to do about Monkeypox right now.

Music Credit

PeaceLoveSoul by Jeris (c) copyright 2012 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/VJ_Memes/35859 Ft: KungFu (KungFuFrijters)