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AIDS ˈādz\ noun: 1. the continent of Africa. 2. acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. 3. a disease of the human immune system that is characterized cytologically especially by reduction in the numbers of CD4-bearing helper T cells ....This morning, I was a bit annoyed because I was thinking about how Americans see Africa as one giant country instead of the diverse continent that truly it is. So, I decide to tweet about the topic, but then to my surprise my tweets were in red. I quickly realized that every tweet that mentions HIV or AIDS today is red on twitter. But why were mine in red, as I didn't mentioned either? Apparently, Twitter thought it was a bright idea to put not only tweets that mentioned AIDS and HIV in read, but those that mentioned Africa too.
The fact that the words "AIDS" and "Africa" are apparently interchangeable was not the only thing that annoyed me today. Most of what I saw about AIDS today was about Africans. It is curious that on World AIDS Day, AIDS is being treated as if it is only a problem that affects and concerns just Africans. Why is it so vital that we stress and make the distinction that AIDS kills mostly Africans when it kills around the world? What point are they trying to make here? I'm feeling the air of condescension coming from this campaign. It is as if they are not only promoting AIDS, but the "white man's" burden as well. I got the same feeling from all of this as I got from this video, which attempts to advocate peacein Africa by showing the Whiteman save the warring savages.
Once gain, Africans are projected in the flat stereotypical light of being helpless, needy, and desperate for the white man's help. In addition to Precious and the Blind Side, it looks like this will be a reoccurring theme for the rest of '09.
3 comments:
It is true!
I mentioned in a post at my forum that Africans are portrayed as "dirty, destitute, primitive and strange". A couple Africans showed up posting comments that were angry. Puhleeease. They can get over THAT shocked outrage very quickly because it is the truth. Americans have consistently portrayed Africans as savages, as poverty-stricken as needy and desperate. I am not sure why there are so many Africans who come to American and want to "claim" that Africans are deemed the "proper blacks" by white people and that Africans have a higher social status in this country than American blacks... they brought those ridiculous claims to my blog and I had to bring out the truth serum.
and what has the movie Precious got to do with this? I'm African and I agree 100 percent what everything you've said on this post but there's a difference between criticizing ignroance and refusing to face reality. If you've ever had the opportunity to work with inner city teenagers in Chicago, then you will meet a lot of preciouses. Preciouses are everywhere in America and Preciouses are even more prevalent in the black community. Precious is a result of slavery, oppression, self-hate, black-on-black crime, racism, lack of education etc all merged together. Precious' story is REAL and I applaud Lee Daniels for having the balls to bring this story to life. The movie Precious is bringing attention to the preciouses in America and because of that movie, one girl's life might change...for the better.
I'm not saying that Preciouses don't exist. I'm saying that one day African-Americans shouldn't always be portrayed in the media as pathetic, dysfunctional, and requiring salvation from white people. The representation of African-American life is one sided.
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