After living with HIV for 20 years, former NBA star turned mogul Magic Johnson has been putting his money where is mouth is. In the years that he has ben fighting this disease, Magic has opted to become an HIV activist for the black community
Johnson recently sat down with the Huffington Post to talk about his Magic Johnson Foundation, HIV prevention, homophobia in the black community and why he would like some of your favorite hip hop artists (some who I know have no problem getting down with their boys on the low) to help him educate the community on issues we so easily love to sweep under the rug.
“I learned a lot from the white gay community because they had gotten their community, rallied them, educated them and did a wonderful job about driving the numbers down. That is the best approach that I’ve seen; it’s been the most effective. So what we try to do in our community is bring those results to us. So I’m working hard to continue to educate minorities about HIV and AIDS and we’ve got to band together. We’re too fragmented right now, but if we can do that, we’re going to do well.
As a hip-hop fan, you realize that homophobia is still an issue everywhere, but especially in the black community. When people are scared to talk about it, that’s how the disease spreads. So what have you been doing to get that risk reduced?
What we’re trying to do is reach out to the hip-hop community because they have power — power with their voice, power with that mic in their hand and power with the lyrics that they sing. I have a lot of friends in that industry and so what we’re trying to do is rally them to get behind the cause, deliver the message to these young people that HIV and AIDS is big and it’s not going anywhere. They can make a difference right away by speaking out, because they have a big fan base.
So we’re finding out that a lot of them want to be involved; they’re just looking for a group like ours to latch onto and be a part of it. We haven’t really had any push-back from the hip-hop community.
Is there anybody you can name?
We’re going to name everybody in a little while because it’s more than one person. We’ve got about five or six people that we’re talking to. We’re going to come out next year with everybody and we’ll have a nice big press conference and what we’re going to do, what our plan is, because it’s so important that we rally — not just them, either. I need the hip-hop community but I also need the basketball players and football players. We need a little bit of everybody, so that’s what we’re working on now
The fact that there are many groups of color who opt not to talk about such a heavy issue is astounding. And while it is true that we have come far in regards of AIDS research and that people are living longer on meds, condemning black and latino LGBT folk needs to stop. HIV is still rampant in our communities, and the sooner we educate the youth on STI's and such, the better we can contain this disease. I applaud Magic for what he is doing and can only hope he can get a few allies in the hip hop community to join him in his fight, though I sincerely doubt that he will.
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