In an event addressing the high rate of HIV/AIDS in black communities, the Dartmouth Medical School hosted the third of four "town hall meetings" in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Black Americans comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population, but they account for over 50 percent of all new HIV cases, according to an ABC News report presented at the first of these town hall meetings.
Shawn O'Leary, the medical school's director of multicultural affairs and an organizer of the event, said he hopes students can understand the root causes of these statistics.
"Students can take this awareness with them when they begin to serve people in the future," he said.
In the Kellogg Medical Auditorium, Eric Pritchard, a specialist on gender issues working on his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, asked the audience to address the subject, a topic he said is rarely spoken about in black communities.
People having a secret relationship with a male partner, who then spread sexually transmitted diseases to women, Pritchard said, are considered to be living on the "down-low."
He encouraged the audience to consider not only the harms of HIV/AIDS to the heterosexual community but those to the entire community.
"Back in the days when it was just drug users and homosexuals dying from AIDS, no one cared. This is the sad truth," Pritchard said. "How can we sleep on this blatant homophobia in our community and expect to deal with HIV/AIDS?"
The subject of sex and rape in prisons has rarely been addressed, he said. Because sex and rape create a power culture among males in prison, it must be addressed, according to Pritchard. He said he is outraged by the penitentiary system's failure to provide contraceptives.
"Change begins not just with knowledge but with shared knowledge," Pritchard said.
Laura Erickson-Schroth, a representative of qMD, DMS's GLBT equivalent, who spoke on the event's panel, claimed that the penitentiary system largely neglects testing for these sexually transmitted diseases frequently spread in prison.
"They don't test because they don't have the money to treat it," she said.
Though not usually involved with mainstream campus Martin Luther King Jr. Day events, the medical school will host its last event that addresses the ability of religion to contribute to this problem's solution.
One of the first outspoken pastors on the responsibility of the Black Church, Reverend Eugene F. Rivers III, will address attendees at another town hall meeting next Tuesday. He confronts the topic of HIV within the religious community he leads.
The DMS Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Tucker Foundation, the Bildner Foundation and the Office of Black Student Advising are sponsoring this series of four town hall meetings.
