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The HRW further asserts that “Racial disparities in incarceration increased in the 1980s and 1990s as the number of Blacks sent to prison grew at a faster rate than the number of Whites. Between 1979 and 1990, the number of Blacks as a percentage of all persons admitted to state and federal prisons increased from 39 to 53 percent. Although the admissions for both races, in absolute numbers, rose sharply, the increase was greatest for Blacks.” One could argue that during the time the HIV epidemic was beginning to take shape, Black men were more and more being deprived of the ability to choose safe sex, As Dr. Gail Wyatt mentions in the special.

As Robert Folilove stated, we don't have any data on this because the penal system denies male-to-male activity within prison walls. Acknowledging it would therefore require a fundamental change in the way we handle justice. While men may not hide their sexual activity within prison, they often will outside of it. Where same-sex activity is an important part of assessing risk, it is largely denied and ignored. Therefore, people will find it nearly impossible to be responsible for something that isn't recognized.

Folivove further alluded to this concept frequently called “prevention for positives.” This is where programs encourage greater responsibility among HIV-positive people. These programs were eliminated under cuts from the current federal administration, but I believe that they could be critical in helping people come to terms with their HIV, as well as how they became infected themselves.

Similarly, we don't have any data on the DL either. First, as mentioned, we would have to rely on self-identification, which obviously begs the definition of the problem. Second, we don't know have definitions of the relationships in which many women catch HIV. In “The Down Low Exposed,” Carrie Broadus of Women Alive says that these women have contracted HIV from “their husbands, their boyfriends and their fiancés.” However, I would challenge them to define those relationships in a compelling way. We know what “husband” means, but what makes a man your boyfriend or fiancé? Was it a promise he made, or a commitment inferred? In order to avoid placing blame where it doesn't belong, we must ask some important questions.

Can a prostitute be a “victim of the DL” if she caught HIV from a bisexual john simply because he may have once had sex with another man? How many of us aren't even infected through unprotected sex, and what role has IV drug abuse played in creating this epidemic? This is the fallacy of Bill Duke's logic when he alleges that HIV among Black women comes only from the men Black women trust. Therefore, we can't say how many women have had sex with men they really believed were their committed lovers because those men aren't likely to identify themselves, and there is no established threshold for the presumption that a man (or a woman) is monogamous.

While most people feel betrayed by infidelity, it is this lack of communication about sex and sexuality in general that is almost criminal, as Phil Wilson, Executive Director, The Black AIDS Institute points out. Therefore, again, I reject the idea that HIV is prevalent in the Black community only because of homosexuality. One woman did take some accountability in the show by admitting that she misplaced her trust, but I can't help but wonder why so many Black women are having unsafe sex with anyone of any color. The piece did little to discover all the reasons so many Black women are at risk.

The documentary offered its best advice when Dr. David Malebranche said to treat everyone as if they are HIV-positive, to learn about HIV, and to get tested. That's advice that anyone of any race and of any sexual orientation can really use.

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