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LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I scoffed when John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate.
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Black Sexual Health: Condition Critical
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Posted By:
mpg157 at 03/21/2008 5:27:09 PM
Comment:
This article questions why STDs are so high in african american youths when studies show them to be less likely to engage in risky behavior (ie unsafe sex) when compared to whites. A true test of whether african american or white youths engage in more unprotected sex is to compare rates of teen pregnancy, as pregnancy is an undeniable indicator of unprotected sex. Do statistics show that the rate of teen pregnancies is higher in african americans as compared to whites? -
Posted By:
vrob125 at 03/17/2008 10:25:53 PM
Comment:
At 12 I had chlamydia. Why? I don't know. Since I did not have sex until I was 18--the cause was unknown.
The Doctor who examined me asked me when was the last time I had sex. I was totally shocked and nervous--specifically since I was still (believe it or not) trying to figure out just exactly how sex occurred. (I knew how it was supposed to happened, but didn't quite believe it.)
All I can say is that as a young black girl, I had a (gasp) sexually transmitted disease and was most definitely a virgin. I didn't even know that it was connected to sexual behavior until much later. Is there a connection? At that time, we were quite careless about using our friends things, and we went to the pool frequently. But to this day, I do not understand why I had chlamydia at 12.
So please do not quickly assume that a girl who has an infection is sexually active. Because I most definitely was not. -
Posted By:
Barny at 03/17/2008 8:59:16 PM
Comment:
I'm trying to understand something , and oh my i sure hope i don't miss-spell a word in this comment and lose all credibility. Despite the list of prevention measures taught, or suggested to teenagers, we still complain that those irresponsible youth refuse to follow the advice. So i say why go to the trouble to teach them about the use of condoms for example if they are only going to ignore sound advice. It's an obvious waste of time and energy. I mean, surely when - one size fits all - condoms of every color and texture are made available in millions of toilets across the Nation, and educators in our schools, welfare workers, and others frantically try to convince our youth not to leave home without one, still many, way to many, say forget it. So why in the world do we bother? I suggest that since it is obvious that teenagers are going to "do it anyway" all attempts to convince our youth otherwise is a waste of the money being spent to educate them. Wouldn't that time and money be better spent making pornography available in every library, in every school, even in the churches, as teaching tools and entertainment. A movement already begun, and gaining momentum. Surely it is their civil rights. Why not encourage them to experiment with every sexual "orientation" before deciding which one, or combination, gives them the most satisfaction and fun? Of course this education should best begin early for satisfactory results. It could give a whole new meaning to "play school". I believe too that the income of every Hollywood celebrity and all other pornographers should be tax deductable because of the service they render to the welfare of the rising generation and the future of our society. Or, hold the phone! Here is an idea. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand that the absolute and fool proof answer to the threat of sexual diseases picking up momentum across our beloved Nation is -- wait for it -- abstinence until legally married to someone of the opposite sex in a monogamous relationship --- so maybe we could spent time and money on stearing our young people in that direction. Or does that make too much sense. I mean, shouldn't that be the very first on the list to at least try. Who knows we might discover that many many teenagers would respond and arn't as stupid as the liberal activists would have us believe. Oh hell, i forgot, the civil liberty folks, and educators, and judges across the land tell us that that would be a waste of time and money because -- the kids are going to keep "doing it" anyway. They are even fighting any government financing of such a reasonable educational approach. Go figure. -
Posted By:
orionoir at 03/17/2008 8:33:38 PM
Comment:
this piece doesn't make much of an effort to answer the questions it raises. self-report of greater condom use doesn't necessarily support the contention of lesser risk-taking. a compelling question: do black girls on average have sex with older partners? are these partners likely tb risktakers, iv drug users, or indiscriminate in their own choice of partners? -
Posted By:
kevway at 03/17/2008 7:17:40 PM
Comment:
"Conservative activists, meanwhile, have long held up HPV as proof that condoms don't work..." There's something about this phrase that implies a blow off, a dismissal, or even a dis, but the fact is that it is true. Condoms work on some STDs, assuming they stay on or don't fail in some other way, but the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the CDC, confirmed last week that condoms don't protect against HPV and protection against syphilis "is partial at best." It should be a crime not to include abstinence as a part of STD prevention. Whether any kids choose celibacy after they are shown the facts is beside the point. If sex education were provided by a private corporation, and they did not mention abstinence, they would suffer the same fate as the tobacco industry, sued for billions of dollars for the harm done. There are plenty of victims, and if we citizens don't speak out for abstinence education, the politically correct perps will keep passing the ammunition. -
Posted By:
kevway at 03/17/2008 6:50:21 PM
Comment:
Conservative activists have held up HPV as proof that condoms don't work because it's true, and the report last week from the US Center for Disease Control verified it with data, also noting that condoms protect poorly against syphilis. Abstinence is not the answer, but it should be promulgated as an option, and the ONLY certain way to avoid STDs altogether. -
Posted By:
tracker at 03/17/2008 5:37:31 PM
Comment:
I don't understand concluding that because black teenagers follow the silly liberal advice of living promiscuously but "protecting" themselves from disease by using condoms, avoiding intoxication, etc., that they are therefore "more careful" than other groups. The risky choice to live promiscuously seems to far outweight the "safe" choice of using condoms. Sorry, but the conclusion is black teens and their enablers are to blame for their sexual health problems.
Sexual promiscuity should be treated just like smoking: there should be public shaming and marketing targeted against the behavior. Let's not hear the whining that abstinance is unreasonable, or doesn't work. It works 100% of the time. We reduced smoking not by telling kids to cut back or smoke safer cigarettes, but by telling there not to smoke and that there are no safe cigarettes. -
Posted By:
fsilber at 03/17/2008 3:45:43 PM
Comment:
The author says that black youth have more sex, beginning at younger ages, but are less likely to engage in behaviors perceived to be risky, i.e. "unsafe sex".
Is this not consistent with the conservative view that "safe sex" is not safe? We do know that religion's monogamist ideal, when adhered to by both sexes, prevents the transmission of sexual disease. -
Posted By:
harvey_birdman at 03/17/2008 3:09:56 PM
Comment:
"So what do we do about all of this? What's clearly not the answer is to tar black kids as sexually reckless."
Right, because it's OBVIOUSLY the white man's fault that black kids *** anything that move and don't use condoms. Jesus fucking christ, you ridiculous whore, take some responsibility for yourself instead of trying to blame others. -
Posted By:
White Guilt at 03/17/2008 2:52:00 PM
Comment:
I want to say sorry. I am sorry for what I have done in my lifetime and for helping create diseases pointed at the african american community. I have been in control for so many years that they only way for me to keep my ironfist on the black community is to create STD's. These diseases that I created only infect skin color for they do not infect non-black internal blood or organs. For this we will fully admit our roll in creating an invironment with makes your people act irresponsible. We are sorry.
Signed,
White Guilt
PS I need to go back to my lab in my yacht to create more diseases. -
Posted By:
Rocket88 at 03/17/2008 2:12:42 PM
Comment:
A more obvious answer to the seemingly disparate studies: people lie about their safe-sex practices. -
Posted By:
Rocket88 at 03/17/2008 2:11:55 PM
Comment:
The more obvious response to the seemingly disparate results of the two health surveys is that people lie about their safe-sex practices. -
Posted By:
ieatwithaknife at 03/17/2008 1:54:13 PM
Comment:
This could be dued to many factors.
Have you listened to the music that is played on the radio these day?
It's all about busting(oh yeah I know this should be burtsting but in todays language it's busting so don't waste time tring to correct me or any of my mistakes. Thank you.) a nut or looking at that girls big curves and what not.
The media, I'm sure, plays a role in this. I'm not saying 'oh let's cut out anything that could be refered to sex' I'm saying have better taste in what you let your children listen to and watch. Remember your children will watch and listen to what they want but let them understand that everything has a coincedense.
Sex is over-rated now. Everyone is doing it so why not just catch what everyone has. Everyone is drinking underage, lets drink. Hey if communities would have some sort of activities for children they would not be doing half the things they consume their time with. But it seems other things are on the adgendas for the older generations that are going to pass and we'll be left with a dull generation with no inspiration and all the STD you could imagion. -
Posted By:
thomaxi at 03/17/2008 12:47:28 PM
Comment:
This *may* be another example of a tipping point. The diseases mentioned have an infection rate of X and black teens, with tighter social circles and greater number of sexual partners, cause a transmission rate of X+1. That +1 is what causes the ballooning figures. Like a common cold that has a 24 hour period when it is infectious and a 1 in 50 chance of infecting a person, as long as a carrier only comes into contact with 50 people it's a 1 to 1 ratio. As soon as they come in contact with more than 50 people, it's an epidemic.
Politically correct or not, it still comes down to greater rates of sexual activity overall causing greater incidences of infection.-
Posted By:
nancy at 03/18/2008 10:15:36 AM
Comment:
Not necessarily. A stable concurrent relationship with 4 people over the course of 10 years (and assuming each of those four people also had 4 concurrent relationships) leads to greater exposure and potential to spread an STD than would a series of 4 sexual relationships over the same period of time. This is not about more, it is about different. -
Posted By:
thedaniel at 03/18/2008 4:30:44 AM
Comment:
Sorry, but your maths here are terrible. If you're interested the relevant equation for modelling epidemic spread is the Anderson-May equation.
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Posted By:
vbgo at 03/17/2008 12:32:25 PM
Comment:
Poverty and lack of affordable, accessible health care may contribute to the spread of STD among black youth. -
Posted By:
vbgo at 03/17/2008 12:31:07 PM
Comment:
Poverty and availability of health care may play a huge role. -
Posted By:
nancy at 03/17/2008 11:00:04 AM
Comment:
I recently read a book, "The invisible cure: Africa, the West, and the fight against AIDS." The central thesis of this book was that AIDS spread so quickly in Africa because in Africa it is normative for both men and women to have stable, concurrent sexual relationships with more than one person. Because these relationships are stable, trust is high and niether party perceives a need to practice STD protection. As long as all parties remain faithful to the cuncurrent relationships, all is fine, but if one steps outside the stable group, then the whole group can quickly become infected. Serial monogomy, in contrast, does not lead to the same degree of spreading activiation.
I do not assume that sexual norms of African Americans are similiar to Africans. However, the observation that AfAm youth might be harmed because of more "close knit social circles" made me think of this book. If concurrencey is common in AfAm adolescents, this may provide further explanation for the higher rates of STDs.
Interestingly, home grown prevention efforts in Uganda helped slow the spread of HIV in that country by reminding residents to use protection even in stable, long term relationships. Perhaps this message needs to be explicitly incorporated in sex ed in the US.
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Posted By:
Hal in MS at 03/17/2008 10:37:32 AM
Comment:
My wife who is by training a critical care nurse began working as a public heath nurse at a clinic that handles STDs,, and Oh the stories she tells. So many bisexual black males leading double lives. Having women with children and male companions on the side. Now in how many of these situations do you think the bisexual male in question is going to be completely candid about whats going on in his other life to his female partner? Not very often I'd imagine. -
Posted By:
GB at 03/17/2008 10:04:00 AM
Comment:
That's an incorrect use of the word "pours" in your first sentence. It should be "pores." -
Posted By:
IgnorantWhiteLiberal at 03/17/2008 10:00:07 AM
Comment:
Listened to 700 WLW last night here in the city of Cincinnati. I suspect conservative radio talk show hosts will have a lot of fun with these statistics. -
Posted By:
jkuo at 03/17/2008 8:20:08 AM
Comment:
Glaring spelling errors in an article detract from a journalistic source's message and credibility. The first sentence of this piece begins: "As the nation pours over the dirty details of yet another political sex scandal . . ."
The correct term is "pores over," not "pours over." See http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pore
Please fix this - at the moment, it's an embarrassing, elementary error. -
Posted By:
REpairmanJack at 03/17/2008 4:20:13 AM
Comment:
Definitely an interesting article, and definitely an issue that needs to be addressed at all levels, and across all racial divides - 1 in 4 teens is a staggering statistic. However, I think there may be a bit of denial in what Kai Wright says. I agree that we don't need to point fingers - that has never solved issues, especially when you are dealing with teenagers. However, I have found vastly different thoughts on sex in black and white cultures. Most of the white kids I know are frankly paranoid about using condoms - to not use one brought condemnation from your peers ("Are you crazy, you could get an STD!"). Among the black kids I know, condoms were viewed almost as something only the weak use. Those who spoke up and said they used condoms were critized, and were told they were missing out on how good sex really feels. Now, perhaps my samples are a little biased - most of the conversations I had with whites were at school, work, and so on, while most of the conversations I had with blacks were done at government project basketball courts. Still, it was enough for me to know that there is a dangerous perception in the black community (at least in Columbia, SC), that condoms are something only a fool would use. I fear that in the coming years, that frame of mind will come back to haunt many of my good friends. -
Posted By:
US Man in china at 03/17/2008 2:15:00 AM
Comment:
The study is shocking about young people. Even the 20% of the others should be be a major concern. There needs to be more teaching and training of the risks of intamate relations and the social and emotional problems that come from it. The study listed 13-19 years of age. We need laws that protect these children from the pediofilles. a 13, 14, 15 and 16 year old girl or boy for that matter are not yet emotionally developed to handle sex and the problems related to it. We need to put laws into place that that makes it a felony for anyone having sex with with a child under 16 or if both are under 16 then if one is a year older than the other the law would apply. That makes 15 year olds having sex with 13 year olds a felony. Statutory rape should be manitory and if any question DNA samples should be required of any and all potential offenders.
Even teenagers should face the laws to protect these young children. And Doctors should be required by law to inform proper authorities about these young pregnancies of any child 16 or younger. Lets put some moral standards here where it will profit the overall society.
About the STD's among the youth, it is alarming and a direct result of a society who is so caught up in their own selfishness that they are not willing to take responsibility for the offspring that they bring into this world. Parents who refuse to be responsible for their childrens actions, children not being taught social values, and the extremely sick moral values that many of our political leaders teach is what allows these things to beciome such big problems. Our ICONS today for political leaders, music pop stars, movie stars, media, are mostly very poor examples of a humanity. But I guess all the immorality of these people (Spizer, Clinton and Monica, Sen. Craig and his airport escapade, and all the rest of the sick political leaders, as well as the Spears, Hiltons, etc. out there getting all the publicity from a very sick news media) are what we as a society really want. We are what we vote for and who we idolize. As The cartoon character POGO said "We have met the enemy and he is WE". What more can be said. We are making our future by not allowing values to be taught in schools and then not teaching the values in our homes. We are our own worst enemy and we are teaching this to our younger generations. -
Posted By:
LiteracyPolice at 03/17/2008 12:07:28 AM
Comment:
As the nation PORES over. -
Posted By:
bckai2003 at 03/16/2008 8:58:25 PM
Comment:
The writer misuses the word "pour" in the first sentence. What he meant was "pore". -
Posted By:
bckai2003 at 03/16/2008 8:57:39 PM
Comment:
The writer misuses the word 'pour' in the first sentence. It's 'pore'. -
Posted By:
elenak at 03/16/2008 11:51:20 AM
Comment:
Let up no forget, the role that black men in prison play. -
Posted By:
kamitche at 03/15/2008 8:29:46 PM
Comment:
Thank you for the article. It's particularly interesting given that young people make up the area of concern for the CDC studies cited. The person saying "just stop doing it" isn't considering what you so carefully outlined. Namely, these might be tendencies among young people. You admit that the closely knit social circle idea is simply a theory, but it makes sense if we think about (for example) limited transportation and parents who more closely watch one's circle of friends. As I think back, my white friends had a lot more permission to hang out with people their parents may not have met than I did, and they often had cars and therefore could make friends with people far removed from their normal circle. In other words, if we take a minute to think about the circumstances that the study suggests we should begin asking questions about (as you have), we can see the service that you've done in bringing this to the fore. And I think it's especially helpful at a time when people seem more willing to ponder whether a politician was really part of a sex scandal years ago or not. As you say, this is the sex news that really matters--the news about which we need to have more honest, thoughtful, deliberate conversations. Thanks, Kai Wright! -
Posted By:
kamitche at 03/15/2008 7:49:23 PM
Comment:
Thank you for the article. It's particularly interesting given that young people make up the area of concern for the CDC studies cited. The person saying "just stop doing it" isn't considering what you so carefully outlined. Namely, these might be tendencies among young people. You admit that the closely knit social circle idea is simply a theory, but it makes sense if we think about (for example) limited transportation and parents who more closely watch one's circle of friends. As I think back, my white friends had a lot more permission to hang out with people their parents may not have met than I did, and they often had cars and therefore could make friends with people far removed from their normal circle. In other words, if we take a minute to think about the circumstances that the study suggests we should begin asking questions about (as you have), we can see the service that you've done in bringing this to the fore. And I think it's especially helpful at a time when people seem more willing to ponder whether a politician was really part of a sex scandal years ago or not. As you say, this is the sex news that really matters--the news about which we need to have more honest, thoughtful, deliberate conversations. Thanks, Kai Wright! -
Posted By:
blackpassenger at 03/15/2008 11:29:03 AM
Comment:
where do the parents figure in all this? are the parents giving them the talk....... on a regular basis? -
Posted By:
deduction at 03/14/2008 4:57:33 PM
Comment:
"we choose our sex partners from within tight-knit social circles"
if that's the problem, then stop doing it. part of the problem with insular communities and thinking.... -
Posted By:
satchseven at 03/14/2008 2:30:28 PM
Comment:
hmmm,let,s not forget about the role of drugs in the spread of hiv in the black community.
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