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Asians & Pacific Islander and HIV – Not So Hilarious
May 19 is National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and World Hepatitis Day. This blog post is one of a series on the impact of HIV and Hepatitis B in Asian & Pacific Islander communities. As A&PIs, you may not believe that you are at risk for these diseases, but you are. Follow our posts throughout the week for different perspectives and stories from our community.”
On May 20, 2010, the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA) in New York City demanded a national apology from Jonah Goldberg to Asian & Pacific Islanders living in the US for mocking us.
The story broke on Salon.com—Jonah Goldberg thinks Asians with AIDS is hilarious. “In Case You Missed It. You have 364 days to plan for the next National Asian and Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day”
Jonah Goldberg, who has written for The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The Women’s Quarterly, and The Los Angeles Times, posted the following on his National Review Online column.
APICHA’s official statement is “Trivializing the impact of HIV is despicable and Mr. Goldberg willingness to mock our community’s response to the epidemic is alarming. We are the only community that has not seen a decrease in HIV infection rates, and we are committed to changing this. National A&PI HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is vital to our mission and we will not tolerate this attack on its significance. I hope that Mr. Goldberg will reflect on this statement, learn about the importance of the day, and apologize to the millions of Asian and Pacific Islanders across the United States. Short of that – we demand actions from the publications that syndicate his column.”
I applaud APICHA’s quick response to counter the racist and callous remarks Goldberg reflects not only in his ignorance but a paltry understanding of how HIV-related stigma within our communities is constructed and works to keep our communities from even perceiving that HIV should be a concern. I don’t know how many A&PIs I have talked with over the years who are HIV-positive—and how many are surprised and shocked they could be living with the virus when they first received their test results.
Goldberg’s remarks also undermine our collective A&PI communities battle for recognition from policymakers that HIV and AIDS is a growing issue as we are the only population with statistically significant rise in HIV cases. In fact with some further data extrapolation, if left unchecked, A&PI HIV case rates will surpass Latinos in five years and African Americans in 10 years, who currently have the highest burden of disease in this country.
Folks, we have an opportunity to not be surprised as a community and not fall into traps Goldberg pushes to mock. That we do not need to take HIV and AIDS seriously—we all know better and so should he.
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It really is shameful that something that is needed in the community had to be used as a proxy to start a left-right argument across two popular blogs.
The blogger on the right of course didn't even bother to mention what the problems are in the community, or even develop a longer post at least attacking the community's position, rather, he poked fun at HIV, AIDS, Asians and Pacific Islanders.
On the left, we have a situtation where fingers are being pointed.
Both the NRO and Salon have never picked up on the fact that May 19 is National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Although it's unfortunate that now both sides realize that the day happens, they use it for their own warfare.
I really hope that others who have been reading our blog postings for the week pick up and repost what have been happening "out there" to expose how A&PI issues are not just ignored, but openly mocked.
the thing that gets me is how easy it is for the mainstream community to dismiss the very real health concerns of the largely ignored Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. while our population numbers may be smaller than other groups, the impact of HIV and hepatitis B in our communities is huge. we have to fight the silence and shame in our own communities, just to raise awareness so people know this IS an issue affecting them and their loved ones. we have some of the lowest testing rates in the country, so of course the number of people living with HIV is underreported. this is an issue in our community that we are all committed to changing. but add to that the fact that we ALSO have to fight the apathy of the mainstream community, who find it so easy to dismiss us and our concerns, and it's pretty easy to get discouraged. most of the US still sees us as "other", and we have to fight for disaggregated data so people will understand who we are and the challenges we face. this is just another way of brushing us off and sticking us in the "other" category.
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