Summary
According to the U.S News, the White House is planning on stopping the epidemic of HIV in America. This goal may be accomplished as researchers in New York point out that black men in Brooklyn barber shops “attend a safe-sex focused educational session” which “helped curbed risky behavior by many of those men in the months that followed” (Williams, 2019). For the study, barbers were recruited by the “Brothers Talking with Brothers” program in which they discuss with their clients about better health. In these communities, many of the participating businesses were in the range for high risk of HIV. This is because many of the clients mentioned having “recent sexual activity without a condom and having at least two sexual partners the past six months” (Williams, 2019). During the program, half of the participants learned about reducing the risk of HIV infection, and the other half received information about prostate cancer. Six months later, the results were “64% of more than 320 men who participated in the HIV education program reported no condomless vaginal or anal sex” (Williams, 2019). This indicates that the results are promising, “particularly since researchers ran up against a pervasive barrier to HIV education and prevention in low-income black communities” (Williams, 2019). Overall, the black barbers were enthusiastic to contribute to this study which has benefited the community by better educating them about reducing HIV infections, as well as receiving information about prostate cancer.
Sociological Reflection
As mentioned in the article, these black participants come from low-income black communities, which tend to not receive the best educational programs, especially when it comes to sex education. Many of these participants were not aware of the high risks of HIV infection that they were exposed to, which could be because only 21 states “mandate sex education and HIV education” (Galta, Chapter 9 Lecture, 2020). In addition, only “20 states require that if provided, sex and/or HIV education must be medically, factually, or technically accurate” (Galta, Chapter 9 Lecture, 2020). Knowing how little states actually require sex and HIV education raises concerns because there are consequences of unprotected sex. Low-income communities suffer most from this lack of education because of their high risks for AIDS and HIV. In addition, medical costs are high as these costs for “treating young people with sexually transmitted infections was $6.5 billion annually, excluding costs associated with HIV/AIDS” (Galta, Chapter 9 Lecture, 2020). Reducing the risk of HIV can decrease the costs that go into medically treating these infections, which can then be put into the funding for sex education and similar programs, such as the one used in the article.
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