The AIDS epidemic among blacks and Hispanics

This article has three themes and one additional goal: AIDS has disproportionately affected minorities; There is a great need for minority community mobilization to deal with the epidemic and its effects, and for financial and other assistance of these mobilizing efforts by national institutions; Blacks and Hispanics are not just dominated and subordinated, but have developed resources and relationships that offer many benefits in fighting AIDS. As an additional goal, this article presents considerable data about different aspects of AIDS and race. These data are by no means complete. The inadequacy of the general research effort on this topic cannot be compensated for in one article, and the fact that the authors have worked primarily in the field of IV drug users and AIDS means that there are undoubted weaknesses in what we cover about race and AIDS among gay men. What we do attempt to accomplish, however, is to demonstrate the existence of important racial dimensions to AIDS and to provoke appropriate research, debate, and action.