David Guilbault

LESSONS ON HIV/AIDS & AFRICAN-AMERICANS

I was privileged and proud to have worked on the five-year documentary project, "Why Us: Left Behind and Dying."   The film and research project explored the myriad reasons why the HIV/AIDS epidemic is hitting the African-American community so hard.  Those reasons include poverty, incarceration, homophobia, gender inequality, shame, denial, secrecy, church dogma, drug use, incarceration, racism, and health disparities.

It became a critically-acclaimed documentary that played in film festivals around the world.  We were grateful for those appreciative audiences.

But, for the work to have real impact, it needs to be in the hands of educators and health care workers.  And it needs to be seen by Black youth.  To that end, a curriculum was developed for high schools.  Below are the videos that go with the lesson plan modules for that curriculum.

I invite you to explore this important health crisis through the eyes of disadvantaged high school students from the Homewood neighborhood in Pittsburgh.  They became the film's reporters and interviewers.  And one of them, the courageous and curious Tamira Noble, became the film's narrator, writer and production assistant.

The film was the project of director/writer/producer Claudia Pryor Malis, who sadly passed away recently from cancer.  She was a visionary, compassionate, creative journalist, dearly loved by all she touched.

I was a producer/writer/co-investigator on the project.  Editor for both the film and the curriculum video segments was Howard Malis.  Other major credits on the film were the late Nene Ofuatey-Kodjoe (Producer/Co-investigator), Vivian Siu (Producer), Robert Shepard (Director of Photography), Chris Ivey (Cinematographer) and Jeffrey Edrich (Sound Engineer).

The curriculum was developed by Dr. Kathryn Kailikole.  She is an experienced curriculum developer who holds a doctoral degree in education from the University of California San Diego, a masters degree in mathematics education from the University of California Santa Cruz, and a bachelors degree in applied mathematics from the University of California Berkeley.

 

Lesson One: The Project Begins 

Lesson Two: Genetic Variation 

Lesson Three: Poverty 

Lesson Four: Views of Black Sexuality
 

Lesson Five: Secrecy, Shame and Fear
 

Lesson Six: Gender Inequality
 

Lesson Seven: Masculinity
 

Lesson Eight: Sexual Orientation
 

Lesson Nine: The Church
 

Lesson Ten: Self-Hatred
 

Lesson Eleven: Drugs and Prison
 

Lesson Twelve: Migration
 

Lesson Thirteen: Access to Medicine
 

Lesson Fourteen: Distrust and Conspiracy
 

Lesson Fifteen: HIV and SIV
 

Lesson Sixteen: Subtypes
 

Lesson Seventeen: Natural Transfer Theory
 

Lesson Eighteen: Serial Passage Theory
 

Lesson Nineteen: OPV Theory
 

Lesson Twenty: Student Project Ends
 

AIDS IS A BLACK DISEASE

I had the privilege and pleasure to work on a documentary produced by Diversity Films about HIV/AIDS and African-Americans.

"Why Us? Left Behind and Dying "  is an in-depth examination of the reasons why HIV rates are disproportionately high in black communities. It was made from the point of view of a small group of inner-city African-American teenagers, ages 14-17, from Westinghouse High School in Pittsburgh, PA.

This film is also being made into high-school and college curricula.

African-Americans comprise roughly 13 percent of the U.S population.  But, recent studies suggest that about 50% of new HIV infections are in black communities.  The contributing reasons are plenty - stigma, poverty, forced displacement, disproportionate incarceration, distrust of health systems, gender inequality, homophobia, shame, religious fundamentalism, racism, denial and secrecy.

This documentary needs to be seen.  I urge everyone who reads this blog to do what they can to spread the word about this important work.  You can order the film at www.whyusmovie.com.

CONTENT OF CHARACTER

GOOD REVIEWS

The documentary I worked on for four years for Diversity Films made its Oscar-qualifying public run in LA and NY this past week.  It got good reviews in the Los Angeles Times and This Week in New York websites.  It's called "Why Us? Left Behind and Dying" and looks at why the HIV/AIDS epidemic is hitting the Black community so hard.

WHY US? POSTERS

 

 

TEACHABLE MOMENT

Thoughtful op-ed piece by Frank Rich in The New York Times, entitled "Small Beer, Big Hangover", on race.

The comforting thing about each “national conversation on race” is that the “teachable moment” passes before any serious conversation can get going. ...

The one lesson that everyone took away from the latest “national conversation about race” is the same one we’ve taken away from every other “national conversation” in the past couple of years. America has not transcended race. America is not postracial. So we can all say that again. But it must also be said that we’re just at the start of what may be a 30-year struggle. Beer won’t cool the fury of those who can’t accept the reality that America’s racial profile will no longer reflect their own.

- Frank Rich, The New York Times

BEYOND THE PALE

Today, Wednesday, October 8th, is the day.  Today we will learn the true character of John McCain and Sarah Palin.  For the past few days, they, and Gov. Palin in particular, have said unconscionable things about Barack Obama.  They have purposely and strategically implied that he is 'other', willfully painting a false picture of their opponent as dangerous, reckless, dishonest, foreign, unpatriotic, un-American and worthy of disdain and dismissal.

Sarah Palin said Obama 'is not a man who sees America as you see it'.  She said he is 'someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country'.  John McCain, in last night's debate, disrespectfully called Obama 'that one', dehumanizing him.  Any minority can recognize racial code when they hear it.

At Palin and McCain pre-debate rallies the crowds have reacted hatefully.  At one of Palin's rallies, when she tried to connect Obama to Weather Underground founder Bill Ayers, a crowd member shouted 'Kill him'.  At a McCain rally, when he asked who Obama really was, a man shouted 'terrorist'.  At another Palin rally, the crowd was loudly berating the press corps and one man shouted at an African-American network sound man to 'sit down, boy'.  Neither Republican candidate disavowed their supporters' bile.

Now, as both of them have been trounced in their respective debates and the polls are showing a widening lead by Obama, is a real test of their true selves.  Will we see even darker sides of their ambitions?

If they knowingly utter one more single code word that would incite a disgusting mob reaction, they will show themselves to be fundamentally dishonorable.

In his blog, 'Has Sarah Palin Put a Target on Obama?', Thurston Clarke notes that 'the GOP's rhetoric is eerily reminiscent of the vile words that preceeded RFK's assassination'.

Speaking of verbal attacks against Robert Kennedy, he asks, "Were their attacks within the bounds of the rough and tumble of a political campaign, or did they cross a line? Did they risk pushing someone who was already mentally unbalanced over the edge, inciting an assassination? After all, if you believed that Robert Kennedy was “vicious and dangerous,” an American Judas, why not kill him before he became president?".

Today is the day, Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin.  You have both gone beyond the pale.  Today, you need to abandon your campaign of fear and hate baiting.  Look into your hearts.  Do the right thing.

Photo Credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

HOPES AND DREAMS

On this date, August 28th, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his conscience-raising 'I Have a Dream ' speech in Washington, D.C.  Tonight, on the anniversary of Dr. King's call for justice, Barack Obama will deliver another momentous address on hopes and dreams.

In 1963, Dr. King said, 'Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.'

Tonight, Sen. Obama has an opportunity to emblazon another moment, speaking as the first African-American nominee of a major party for President of the United States.  It is a long overdue triumph that should be shared by all Americans, regardless of political leanings.

As Barack Obama said in his thoughtful oration on race in Philadelphia earlier this year, 'In the end, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.'

Before we watch Obama's speech tonight, it would do us well to watch again the righteous words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., from 45 years ago.