POLITICAL AGENDA
The Future Is Now!
A Political Agenda for Advancing, Building, and Sustaining Black HIV Leadership in the South
Written in 2020, this political agenda was drafted after collecting 100 in-depth surveys and hosting several focus groups. We continue to share it because it identifies the gap that Black South Rising seeks to fill by providing a community-wide or systems-level approach to building power in the history-rich South built on stories of resiliency, joy, and love.
In the current political and racial divide, these recommendations are needed now more than ever. They will be supplemented to address the new level of threats to our survival and humanity. Black South Rising stands strong on the shoulders of our ancestors and is firmly committed to celebrating all of who we are as Black folks, our history that did not begin with slavery and will not end with slavery, our legacy, and our future.
As Black HIV advocates doing movement work in the United States South, we recognize the urgency and necessity of reframing the narrative around addressing the epidemic.
The history of slavery, Jim Crow, racial violence, and the present-day horrors have shaped our current political moment in ways that exacerbate HIV that overwhelmingly impacts our lives.
However, our history is not only one of horror. Our ancestors' courage inspires us as we stand on their shoulders in this fight. We are demanding a renewed commitment rooted in a Black cultural lens addressing HIV in the South. We are clear that Black people should lead the conversation about HIV in the South. Any discussion around HIV in the South that does not center the voices of Black people is a failed enterprise from the start.
The purpose of this project was to:
Gather information from Black HIV advocates and individuals doing HIV work in the South,
Better serve black people who may be at risk for, vulnerable to, or living with HIV
Better support movement-building efforts that can inform our HIV advocacy agenda
Specifically, we wanted to understand what exists and what is working in terms of leadership, advocacy, service issues, which may reduce existing HIV-related health disparities.
This document represents the results of Black South Rising’s community engagement effort, as described below in the methodology section.
