Think Again

Give a black gay man a condom, and he is safe for one night; teach him how to love himself and you keep him safe for life.
-- Marvin K. White

This simple statement sums up the challenge facing the Black community and specifically Black gay men as the HIV/AIDS epidemic enters midway of its second decade. Safe sex messages crafted over the past twenty years are either falling on deaf ears or met with ambivalence, while infection rates continue to creep steadily upward.

Into this mix comes a new call to arms. Think Again is a concise collection of essays by a cross section and geographically diverse group of Black gay men that asks readers to look beyond data and simplistic messages, to understand the reasons why Black men who practice same sex desire continue to put themselves at risk.

A bicoastal collaboration between the New York State Black Gay Network and AIDS Project Los Angeles, this is less a book to be read for entertainment, and more for enlightenment and further discussion.

Issues of sexual/emotional desire and the need to love and be loved as they influence risk-taking are addressed head on. G. Winston James highly provocative story John about one man's desperate attempt to satisfy his sexual needs with a hustler, points out the duel feelings of shame and longing.

Khary Polk's Love and Basketball questions the effectiveness of existing prevention messages as they relate to the audiences they seek to reach. Limited in the range of options they offer, they are similarly limited in their definitions of manhood and masculinity as they pertain to how Black men define themselves.

Talking about sex more openly and truly understanding the thought processes that lead us to our sexual encounters is the basis for Kevin Quashie's essay Everyday Sex. He contends all of our sexual acts are choices and decisions we make and often related to the other things we do as we interact.

This book is not for sale, but rather is being given away quite freely so as to engage people in as many places as possible. It comes with no instructions beyond its title. Think again.

Posted by bernie at December 1, 2003 02:13 AM