2-Hour Documentary Endgame: AIDS In Black America

hit in the 60’s and as cocaine made its way in the 70’s, it was the “it” drug of the era. It was very popular amongst celebrities, executives, athletes, and the very rich. Even with its infiltration of the nation, the federal government didn’t get as involved as it did when crack hit the streets. The DEA mostly targeted big smugglers and major dealers. Cocaine started to get a negative rap only because of the violence and killings that started to come with it. Those who were out to stop the crack epidemic had something else in mind- to target the users. The users were the same users as those who used powdered cocaine. The Drug-Abuse Act of 1986 was the law that separated crack from cocaine in the eyes of the law. When crack cocaine first

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, drug use became a major concern for most Americans. As the War on Drugs and “Just Say No” campaign were being thrust into the spotlight by the government and media, the public became more aware of the scope of drug use and abuse in this country. The federal and states’ governments quickly responded by creating and implementing more harsh and punitive punishments for drug offenses. Most of these laws have either remained unchanged or become stricter in the years since then.

The term Human Immunodeficiency Virus is commonly known as (HIV), which is a virus that attacks the immune system of humans by destroying the amount of CD4 cells in their bodies. Without CD4 the human body is unable to fight against diseases, which can lead to Acquired Immune deficiency syndrome known as AIDS for short. The first case of the HIV/AIDS virus in the U.S. occurred in the early 1980’s. The first spark of the virus was found in San Francisco with couple of homosexual Caucasian American males. Today African Americans account for the largest proportion of HIV and AIDS in this country, represent approximately 13% of the U.S. population, but accounted for an estimated 44% of new HIV infections in 2010(the last year a study was

In the summer of 1985, New York City was introduced to the drug crack. The ensuing seventeen years have culminated into some of the most turbulent, and crime ridden years in the history of New York City. Crack is the street name for a form of cocaine introduced in the mid-1980s. Crack is smoked, rather then sniffed through the nose, or injected, which are all other ways to use cocaine. Users of the drug inhale the vapors that are given off when the crack is heated (Berger pg.20). Crack cannot burn, and in order to give off the drugs vapors it must be heated to a very high temperature. After the crack has been heated the user will proceed to inhale the vapors. The drug will then pass

Most of us would agree that drug abuse and addiction is no respecter of persons. Regardless of age, race, gender, or economic status drug addiction can rear its ugly head in any situation. Like most Americans, I have personally been affected by the pitfalls of drug addiction from relatives and friends. Therefore, I have witnessed firsthand the devastation that it leaves on family members, friends, and the communities, in which they reside. Since its inception in 1986 the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, as caused more harm than good. At the start of this Act, Congress implemented maximum drug quantities initially targeted at “serious” and “major” drug traffickers. Congress concluded that 500 grams of powder cocaine would trigger a five-year mandatory minimum, and five kilograms would trigger a ten-year mandatory minimum. However, for crack cocaine the triggering quantities were significantly less. Only five grams of crack cocaine would prompt five-years and just fifty grams to prompt a ten-year sentence. This massive gap became known as the 100-to-1 sentencing disparity. Soon after several states began to legislate sentencing disparities between powder cocaine and crack cocaine into their criminal codes. The original targets of

Semen containing white blood cells infected with HIV comes into contact with tissue in the rectum and vagina. The virus can then enter the bloodstream of the host through perforations in the tissue surface. The risk of this happening is greatest in anal intercourse, either between two men or a man and a woman.” HIV is spread through a direct exchange of blood or blood products. This mode of transmission is most frequent among IV drug users who share injection needles. It includes, as well, hemophiliacs and other persons who receive blood transfusions, and fetuses of mothers who carry the AIDS virus.” AIDS has sparked considerable interest and controversy since the start of the epidemic. However, in trying to identify where AIDS originated, there is a danger that people may try and use the debate to attribute blame for the disease to particular groups of individuals or certain lifestyles. When the AIDS epidemic became offical in June 1981, it was widely considered exclusively a "gay disease” and this was because many people were confused and uneducated about this new, foreign disease that faced and ravaged our society as a whole. There is no doubt that many people coming from all walks of life were subject to discrimination when other people discovered that they were suffering as victims taken by the disease. The cultural and social response to AIDS portrayed in the film Philadelphia (1993) covered all of these aspects and was

This debunk the ideology of the targeting of crack for major crime organization and it was use towards imprisoning a specific racial community with punitive sentencing. Many studies soon came out in stereotyping crack cocaine as one of the most addictive drugs and created false claims that the media ran with. In 1995 the Sentencing commission challenge congress into asking for a reform of federal criminal sentencing through the matter. In 1993 there was a report by the Commission between the correlation between those who were sentenced to prison terms because of crack cocaine and in those who used the drug,”Report found that blacks accounted for 83.3 percent of federal crack cocaine convictions, Hispanics 7.1 percent and whites constituted a meager 4.1 percent.”(Percival, 124). The perception of these numbers would insinuate that African Americans tend to be the ones who either consume or distribute this drug but a Household survey showed a different perception in correlation with those who are imprisoned because of this drug, “ 52 percent of the people who reported using crack were white, 38 percent were black and 10 percent were hispanic”(Percival, 124). White people seemed to make up the more than half of the those who use it and yet are the ones who are least subjected to

Heroism can be defined as when one displays could courage. All over the world there are individual heroes. Some of those people start organizations to help people in need. The Magic Johnson Foundation is a heroic organization to help people achieve what they want to achieve while maintaining a good healthy life.

HIV/AIDS is a disease with social, psychological and physiological consequences for those impacted by the illness. The impact of HIV and AIDS among African American women has been devastating. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC, 2010) reports that black women represent 29% of the estimated new HIV infections among all adult and adolescent African Americans and HIV/AIDS is the third leading cause of death for black women ages 25?44. Several

Throughout the Age of AIDS film many topics that were related to AIDS were brought up that I did not know anything about before. I did not know that there could so many strings attached to a disease and have such an influence in people’s lives whether it was negative or positive.

In the documentary “The Age of AIDS,” FRONTLINE examines the outbreak of AIDS since its first diagnosed case in 1981. The film investigates different medical, political and social environments under AIDS pandemic in the US and worldwide. The film not only focuses on the scientific research and progress in treating the disease, it also looks at the social stigma, government strategies and public campaigns around different countries.

According to recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 1.2 million individuals in the United States have HIV (about 14 percent of which are unaware of their infection and another 1.1 million have progressed to AIDS. Over the past decade, the number of HIV cases in the US has increased, however, the annual number of cases remains stable at about 50, 000 new cases per year. Within these estimates, certain groups tend to carry the burden of these disease, particularly the gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (MSM) and among race/ethnic groups, Blacks/African American males remain disproportionately affected. (CDC)

When the AIDS and HIV virus crept its way into the human-race, it quickly, and without warning, claimed the lives of millions. Then when its destructive wake had finally been abated, it left behind several untold mysteries. Throughout the course of this class, all the new material we have been exposed to has added some unique piece to the puzzle of the AIDS epidemic. Each puzzle pieces have ranged from speculations on how the AIDS epidemic had begun, to what exactly has the epidemic done. We have also tackled the question and how it forced a change in society. Our newest piece of the puzzle is the documentary “The Age of AIDS,” by William Cran. Although this documentary did not surprise me in its content, it did, however, affirm certain types

According to a report published in the February 1998 edition of “Nature”, scientists identified what they believe is the earliest case of AIDs in a man from the Congo in 1959. (Lerner and Hombs 39) By the end of the year 1980, 80 men would have been diagnosed with at least of the opportunistic infections that are a characteristic of AIDs. (Lerner and Hombs 40) AIDs cases in the 1980s increased dramatically not only around the world but in the United States, primarily in larger cities like Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco. The numbers of AIDs diagnoses and deaths spiraled out of control throughout the 1980s and towards the end of 1989 there were 117,500 cases of AIDS reported and 89,000 related deaths.(Lerner and Hombs 54) In the

HIV/AIDS was first discovered in the late 19th and early 20th century in Sub- Saharan Africa. It originated from primates and transferred to humans. There are two types of HIV. HIV-1, and HIV-2. The HIV1 is more common because of how easily transmitted it is. The HIV1 is found in chimpanzees in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Central African Republic. HIV2 is less transmittable because it was confined to West Africa before it could spread to epidemic levels. Every country has HIV/Aids in them. As of 2012, Swaziland has had the most percentage of aids by 26.50 of its population. Lesotho, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia follow with numbers ranging from 23-13 percent. Since the problem originates in Africa, that is where the top HIV/AIDS infestation is. 68% of the people infected with HIV lives in Sub- Saharan Africa. More than half of all new HIV infections are in people under the callow age of 25, therefor millions are growing up with AIDS, or with dying family members.