[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 9 (Thursday, February 7, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            HIV/AIDS EPIDEMIC IN AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

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                         HON. EARL F. HILLIARD

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 7, 2002

  Mr. HILLIARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call attention to the crisis in 
the African-American community in regard with the devastating disease 
HIV/AIDS. Nearly half of all new sufferers of HIV/AIDS are African-
American.
  Worse yet, 63 percent of all new cases are among African-American 
women, representing a massive epidemic. Racial minorities now make up 
over half of new cases of HIV/AIDS and over half of those living with 
AIDS.
  This disease does not seek out people of color to infect--African-
Americans are targeted due to poverty, social oppression and the 
continuing emotional burden which remains from slavery and segregation. 
This makes the fight against HIV/AIDS a civil rights battle and it must 
be seen as that.
  The Apostle Paul pointed out that ``we fight, not flesh and blood, 
but powers, principalities.'' This is clearly true--HIV/AIDS is not 
just a problem of the flesh and blood, but of social injustice. We must 
recognize this or we will not be successful in combating it.
  This war must be fought by doctors and nurses and community health 
advocates. But it must also be fought by ministers and churches, by 
companies that need to hire African-American workers at living wages, 
and by neighborhood integration.
  We must provide hope as well as health, and life more abundant as 
well as life itself.

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