Wince-worthy: Atlanta’s HIV diagnosis percentages compare to, wait for it, Africa.
This is pretty much the face I made when I read the headline; just the headline. Not just any old part of Africa, but the Third World status parts of Africa.
Like, I know it’s a serious issue, and AIDS shouldn’t really be a laughing matter, but come on now. Busting out a story like this is just begging for all sorts of criticism, but given the fact that depending on whom you ask in the media, there’s no such thing as bad publicity, WSB is swinging at some pretty low-hanging fruit at releasing an article like this one.
It’s no secret that Atlanta is a city with an extremely heavy African-American population. But then to go and seek out scientific evidence that a predominantly African-American area actually share one of the less reputable stereotypes about Africans in Third World Africa in general? That’s some fucked up shit, man.
As if the passively racist people in the world need any more fodder to take passively racist jabs at Atlanta, oh look out, Atlanta’s the home to some AFRICA-LEVEL amount of AIDS there. Stay away from those poor people, especially the black ones, because they just might have the HIV.
Honestly, I never understood, and don’t think I will ever understand the correlation to poverty and AIDS. When I was struggling with money, it’s not like I was offered to give myself HIV to make money to pay bills or anything. If I can’t buy food, I don’t eat, and I sell my belongings instead of prostituting myself out to people who clearly have no qualms with spreading the HIV to people who might want discretion in the first place. However apparently, there are many who don’t have such restraint, and for whatever reason, there is a tremendous correlation between poverty and AIDS.
But there we have it, Atlanta’s HIV numbers are really no worse than, a Third World African nation. Yep, it’s been scientifically proven. This is like when a debate on a stupid topic occurs between a group of people, that most are aware nobody really cares about, but then the one slightly socially awkward person who doesn’t quite get it decides to put an inordinate amount of effort to get the facts straight and try to present their intellectual superiority – over a topic nobody cares about. But when they do, the rest of the group looks more appalled than impressed.
