The Danger of a Single Story: PrEParing Black College Women in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS (Poster 32)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

According to the Centers for Disease Control, although Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population, they account for more than 40% of all HIV cases. The same data suggests 58% of the 245,000+ women living with HIV identify as Black, and 91% of women with new infections attributed it to heterosexual contact. These troubling statistics reveal how Black women engaging in heterosexual sex are overrepresented in HIV/AIDS diagnosis despite technological and social advancements. Worse yet, Black people between the ages of 13 and 45, a demographic encompassing most students enrolled in U.S. post-secondary institutions, have the highest HIV/AIDS infection incidents overall (CDC, 2019). Still, Black people are missing from biomedical interventions designed to avert infections, as prescription rates for preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention remain low in the Black community despite rapidly growing medical eligibility. Indeed, PrEP uptake is low for Black women despite their statistically increased risk a reality underscoring the urgent need to center Black college women in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Using an interplay on Danticat’s (2010) create dangerously framework, the purpose of this paper is to explore, contextualize, and frame the current data, trends, and possibilities for Black college women and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S. Southeast under the premise of researching dangerously. Moreover, I use this paper to disrupt the pervasive single narrative of HIV/AIDS as a crisis of and for men and men alone.

Author

• Brittany Williams, University of Vermont
  Presenting Author