Theory of Writing Assignment › Forums › Discussions › America's Hidden HIV Epidemic
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September 24, 2019 at 11:08 am #289SamKeymaster
Discussion for “America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic” by Linda Villarosa.
September 24, 2019 at 11:59 am #290HelenParticipantThe summary of this article is that a project coordinator, Cedric Sturdevant, makes an effort to help the growing number of H.I.V. and AIDS with their illness. He drives long distances to make sure that these people get the medication they need, the reminders to their appointments, and any counseling necessary for them to continue on living. One in two African-American gay and bisexual men will be infected with the virus. Without the proper education and treatment, this preventable risk can quickly be fatal. The message of this article is to reduce the rates of H.I.V. and AIDS within the gay and bisexual African-American community because its crisis is increasingly becoming an epidemic. The author, Linda Villarosa, does a great job at capturing how Sturdevant’s role in his community greatly helps people. Even so, there’s only so much that he could do. The language of this article makes it incredibly easy to read and follow, while still maintaining an urgent tone that something has to be done to change this health crisis. Publishing this on NY Times as an online article genre already increases awareness. The whole point of the article is to increase awareness to raise funds and education for H.I.V. and AIDS in Black America. It’s not hard to see why this community has suffered for so long due to the original discrimination and hate targeted towards the LGBT+ colored community. The statistics compared to white dominated regions versus black dominated regions correlation speaks volume of the administration in power today. Readers feel empathy for Sturdevant and his strive to be “there night and day for everyone”. His self-motivation and need to help others is very inspiring, and hopefully, encourages others to do the same. Overall, it’s important that action needs to be taken in order to relieve this crisis that could be easily prevented through medication and early treatment.
September 24, 2019 at 4:37 pm #291Anthony LiangParticipant“America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic” by Linda Villarosa follows Cedric Sturdevant, a project coordinator at My Brother’s Keeper, who delivers and checks up on young black gay men and transgender women who has HIV and AIDS. His goal is to keep them up with their medication and to teach them about HIV and AIDS and what they can and can’t do by having the virus. Linda goes through Cedric’ daily routine, his background as a gay man, stories he has as a project coordinator, the history of HIV & AIDS and the action taken, the stigma of HIV & AIDS among black people, and follow ups on the people mentioned earlier in the article.
The article is very lengthy and to combat this and to keep the reader’s attention, Linda writes in a more simple fashion that doesn’t induce us into boredom. The stance that Linda has due to the nature of the genre of the article is one that is for change of view by the government and citizens because the nature of politics and the lens which is looked out by them. They care more about the more important race; Caucasians instead of minorities such as Blacks. We see this in the C.D.C.’s Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report (June 5th, 1981) where they wrote a report about PCP appearing in Caucasian males and not including the appearance in a Black and Haitian male and also in the disbursement of $168 million of HIV/AIDS philanthropic dollars where only $16 million were directly targeting African Americans, only 15.4% of the budget.
I feel like the genre of this piece is advocacy journalism because it’s main goal is to discuss the group of people that are affected by HIV & AIDS who aren’t mentioned in mainstream media unlike those who are Caucasian and is backed up with facts.
September 24, 2019 at 9:16 pm #292Xiaoqin JiangParticipantThe summary of “America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic” by Linda Villarosa is about Cedric Sturdevant was work in a local social-services nonprofit, and his purpose was help more H.I.V. patients and save their lives. In this article, we can learn about that many black gay and bisexual men were getting worse and worse condition because they didn’t know they have H.I.V., and they were frustrated and ashamed at first because it was difficult to talk about this disease. Also, some blacks tried to hide their homosexuality by having sex with black girls, and they infect their virus to those black girls, which makes black women get H.I.V. is higher than white women. In addition, in according to this article that to treat H.I.V. requires investing a lot of money to control the spread of the disease and develop new drugs to prevent it. What’s more, most blacks who gets H.I.V., their parents, friends and children abandon them, which makes H.I.V. patients want to give up their lives. I think this is a very cruel thing, because blacks who gets H.I.V. is already very painful and embarrassed (like A sharp drop in weight and organ failure), they need the comfort and support from their family and friends to overcome the disease. The genre of this article is newspaper (non-fiction). This author used to narrative way to through whole article, and the audience of this article is aimed at the general public because I think this article wants to tell those blacks who got H.I.V. don’t give up their lives, they should stick to survival, there will be hope. And the mass should have a virtuous heart to treat those blacks and give them more care.
September 25, 2019 at 7:02 pm #294Crystal YangParticipantSturdevant knows the hands-on experience of being a homosexual black man in the South and was able to catch HIV, leading to his present actions. He drives around, providing medicine for HIV to those who need it and especially for those who are ashamed of having this disease. He himself knows how it felt when he found out he had this disease. By having the same mutual feelings, he was able to help those around him who are going through what he did. This transportation of medicine is important as most people develop having AIDS before even finding out that they even had HIV in the first place. This led to a worldwide epidemic as most black men cannot even afford PrEP, the medicine needed to prevent contracting the virus. The author was able to take a stance of being informational and not biased at all. She stayed neutral about sexuality, race, gender, etc. and focused more or spreading information about this HIV epidemic instead. Her targeted audience is most likely those who may be in the closet or insecure about their sexuality, race, etc. since they may be more vulnerable, especially if you have either HIV or AIDS as well. The genre of this article is most likely an informative report as it is to explain an epidemic to teach the audience something new or something that they are not aware of, rather than persuading.
September 25, 2019 at 7:42 pm #295Amy HoParticipant<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″>“America’s Hidden H.I.V. Epidemic” by Linda Villarosa starts with a story about Cedric Sturdevant, a father figure to many gay men and transgender women who are suffering from H.I.V and AIDS. Sturdevant is seen reaching out to many people suffering this disease and he tries his best to get them through this tough time. </span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″>The author, Villarosa is a journalist, author, and professor at CCNY is writing to inform the general crowd about this concealed crisis. The genre of this source is a magazine article. Villarosa uses an urgent and passionate tone to highlight the rising numbers of gay men and transgender women who are dying from HIV and AIDS even with treatments circulating around. The statistical data that Villarosa incorporates show that the H.I.V. epidemic still exist today and it presents her stance where she talks about this crisis as something not widely addressed. Villarosa’s purpose for writing this article is to bring awareness to the fact that even with treatments and medications not everyone is able to afford them. Additionally, she expanded on different people that Sturdevant encountered who struggles mentally and physically, where they lose motivation to survive. This article acts as a support system and inform the general crowd that HIV and AIDS are still ongoing issues that is often dismissed by ignorant people. The language is easily accessible which is an important component in spreading awareness because Villarosa made the article very straight forward using Sturdevant’s story and data to support her position.</span></p>September 25, 2019 at 9:27 pm #296Syed Shataj HosainParticipantIn the magazine article,” America’s Hidden HIV Evidence” by Linda Vilarosa talks about a Cedric student who works as a local worker for HIV patients. Many men and bisexual men were suffering from bad health conditions because they didn’t know they were suffering from high HIV. Black men, having sex with black girls and that’s how they infected each other with HIV which increased the amount of HIV patients. Some of the family abandoned them and stop taking responsibility for them because they had HIV. The writer Vilarosa also states how the black community and bisexual people got neglected and didn’t get proper treatment because of their color and a different gender. The genre of the magazine article is to spread awareness of HIV. The language of the article is very basic and easy to understand for the audience. The audience is mostly regular people because they don’t have much knowledge about how black people are suffering from HIV at a high rate and how they should get the treatment from the society and the government. The winter Vilorosa also asserts how black, bisexual and transgender people should be treated from their families and the society when they suffer from HIV. HIV can be prevented by care and proper medication and treatment.
September 25, 2019 at 10:14 pm #297Mohammed MiaParticipant<span style=”font-family: ‘Times New Roman’,serif;”>In the story from the New York Times, Cedric Sturdevant is the main character who is going around from the small community he lives in to other states for the sole reason in helping people fight the battle of having HIV/AODS. In the South, where he lives, are the most amount of people with HIV. While many in the community don’t even know they have it or not, the one’s who do have it are most affected because they just realized they have it and have no clear guidance. Back in 2005 when he realized he had HIV, he knew nothing about it, had no one to vent or pour out his feelings and emotions to, and nor did he have his partner anymore because she had died the following year. Now that Sturdevant</span> knows the situation of all these other people in and outside of his community, he made it his goal to reach out to every single person, hand them their package and talk to them so they know that they are not alone and that this war can be fought. The author Linda Villarosa gives a transparent view of this message she is trying to send out to the world using Sturdevant’s story to better grasp how lethal this situation is. Villarosa is mainly spreading the message on the prevention of the spread of HIV and AIDS within the gay, bisexual, black male community. This epidemic is something many are uneducated about and about 50% of young black, bisexual men have HIV without knowing. In this article, the language is super relatable to modern day speech and allows the readers to fluently comprehend and legitimately feel sympathetic while reading about the situation. Villarosa uses a tone that constantly reminds the readers of how serious this epidemic is in many places. I honestly feel very bad for these folks because I can’t imagine how they must be living in a community where after every couple of houses, the windows were broken, homes were abandoned, and people were at the utmost low point in their life. Thankfully, growing up having to go to the hospital to be treated and getting educated is truly a blessing and Sturdevant is trying his best to educate and aid those around him with this disease.
September 25, 2019 at 10:44 pm #299Edwin MoodyParticipantThis article details the work of Cedric Sturdevant, an African-American, Southern man who helps locals who suffer from HIV and AIDS. The reason this work is important to him is that he is an HIV survivor as well. As a gay, black man in the South, when Sturdevant contracted the disease he had no support system, and felt ashamed to go for help because of the mindset concerning an LGBT lifestyle in the South. The statistics show that a shocking number of gay African-American men and transgender women in the South suffer from the disease without knowing it, or without a place to go for help. This is because the general population of America doesn’t care for this particular demographic of people. To help alleviate this problem, Sturdevant travels around Jackson, Mississippi meeting with people suffering from HIV and AIDS, giving them hope through his recovery story, and makes sure they take their medication.
The article is fairly lengthy, but the author effectively uses language and tone, which makes it both relatable and easy to read. Most importantly, it conjures up feelings of sympathy from the reader because of the horrific situations these people are faced with, often without help from the government. The article was written to raise awareness for a glaring problem that not enough Americans are able to see. Because of it’s prominence in the New York Times Magazine, and the quality of the writing, hopefully this article will supply some long-belated support to many dying people.
September 25, 2019 at 11:00 pm #300Escarlen IbadangoParticipant<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>“America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic” by Linda Villarosa goes along on a drive with Cedric Sturdevant, a project coordinator, where he goes to help patients with HIV/AIDS. They go around and visit different patients who he considers like his children, L.G.B.T. members with low incomes and of color to provide them aid to fight their battle. Sturdevant himself is a patient who battles the fight and feels like ‘his children” should obtain the same support he felt when he was struggling to come out with his struggle of having HIV/AIDS while being part of the African American community. </span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The New York Times is an online article that informs people on a daily basis of issues of society today. </span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>Villarosa, a journalist and director of the program at City College, uses a cautionary tone to inform the audience of the effects of HIV/AIDS and how people can prevent it. As her purpose is to have “</span><span style=”font-weight: 400;”>more of a voice and a standing in H.I.V./AIDS advocacy organizations, and access to the cultural and financial power of the L.G.B.T. community that would rise up to demand government action”(Villarosa). Leading a greater help to the community and making it a simple direct formal article with examples of patients who are undergoing this disease. While it focuses on ways to decrease the rate of HIV/AIDS patients when she shows organizations that help communities. When her stance is that more people should be informed to prevent HIV/AIDS with the help organizations to offer resources among minorities to lower the rate of patients. </span>
September 25, 2019 at 11:45 pm #301REAYANUL HAQUEParticipantIn the newspaper article, “ America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic “ by Linda Vilarosa talks about a guy named Sturdevant who drives around Jackson, Miss and provide HIV medicines for the black and transgender people had HIV. Sturdevant has HIV and that’s why he knows people don’t talk about this disease openly. Mostly black men and bisexual people were suffering from high HIV. Black men were having sex with black girls without knowing that they have HIV. And that affected those girls who had sex with them. Some of their family members didn’t want to take their responsibility when they knew that they have HIV. Vilarosa also explains how black men and transgenders dying from HIV even the treatment are available. Linda Vilarosa also states, how black and bisexual should be treated. They should not lose hope to live and stay strong. Also, HIV can be diagnosed early with good treatment and medicine. The genre of the article is a newspaper. The writer used a simple language for the audience to understand the topic better. Also, the audience is the people who don’t openly talk about their disease. So, that’s why the winter wanted to people know about HIV and be aware of it.
September 26, 2019 at 12:48 am #302Sebastian Vargas SanchezParticipantIn the article “American’s Hidden H.I.V Epidemic” by Linda Villarosa we take a look into why the black gay and bisexual men in America have a higher H.I.V rate than any other country. From the beginning of the article we see that some people with HIV are not getting the treatment they need so a guy named Cedric Sturdevant steps in and provides the life and death care that these people need. A rhetorical device that could be used to express the problem happening with HIV and gay black men is logic. In this article, Villarosa provides us with many statistics showing us the real problem. Even thought the southern parts of America holds only 37% of the population, there were 54% of diagnoses of HIV. Most of the cases of HIV are located in a place where the population is lower than the rest of the country. The south is also struggling to get help financially. In 2015 $168 million was used for HIV problems but only $31 million went to the south. the place with the highest HIV population is getting the least money to solve its problems. Only $16 million actually went towards the gay and bisexual men with HIV. We are supporting the biggest group with HIV with the least money and expect the problem to get solves. Another connection that is seen in the article is that the individuals that have HIV are the ones that are unemployed, not educated, do not have opportunities, transportation and get discriminated against. These are flaws that enable the spread and untreated HIV to et around more rapidly. The genre is an informative newspaper article that wants to provide us with the information and statistics about why the community of gay and bisexual men have the highest rate of HIV.
September 26, 2019 at 2:10 am #303Nika MedilishiParticipant“America’s Hidden HIV Epidemic” is an article from the New York Times in which Linda Villarosa discusses the problems and dangers HIV/AIDS brings. She is bringing concerns which she believes should not be ignored and need to be addressed. The main audience of this article would be African-American gay and bisexual men because as she claims “one in two African-American gay and bisexual men will be infected with the virus.” This is an online newspaper article that uses a very accessible language to cover the story. Linda unravels the stories of many African-American men or women who are living with the disease simply because they are not aware of it. There are many different reasons why African-Americans have a higher chance of getting HIV/AIDS than any other group of people and she is providing a series of facts to show exactly how and why that is. The audience also can be anybody who can make a difference in these matters such as politicians, celebrities, doctors, etc. The purpose of this article is to spread information about the disease in terms of how dangerous and life-threatening it can be. The tone and stance of the author is very clear. She wants to help people who have the disease while spreading the facts and news about what can be done about it. She wants more people to know the matter and more people to get tested as well as finding solutions to help African-American men to prevent the disease. Linda talks a lot about how the government needs to do more to prevent the disease in this country and should invest more to help the people who have the disease. This article mainly focuses on Cedric Sturdevant, who as Linda says is “improvised role of visiting nurse, motivational coach and father figure to a growing number of young gay men and transgender women suffering from H.I.V. and AIDS.” Linda tells us inside stories about Sturdevant’s life and how crucial his work has been. The article is very easy to read which also has facts and sources to support its original story. These facts and stories help the article be more interesting and useful while making easy for the audience to follow and understand the story better.
September 26, 2019 at 2:13 am #304Arijit SahaParticipant<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>In the article “America’s hidden epidemic” author Linda Villarosa talks about why African American and bisexual men have a higher rate of H.I.V in America than any other country in comparison. The article starts off by talking about Cedric Sturdevant who is a 52 year old individual and works for an organization called “ My Brothers keeper” a non-profit. Cedric travels around small towns and talks to groups of people with H.I.V and helping them, introducing them to treatments. Cedric being a victim of the disease himself his goal is to get to each gay men carrying the virus and tell them his stories which gives them a ray of hope that they can get better. As said in the article the rate of H.I.V in the southern states are the highest in the U.S.A. mostly because the number of black population in those states and victims of H.I.V are ashamed and afraid of coming out and talk to people about their problems, most people are not aware of the medical advances and treatment that can be used to get rid of the disease. That’s why Cedric wants to travel and reach out to people checking up on them with their progress and journey to live. The numbers are very astonishing, in some places one of two African Americans are diagnosed with the disease without proper care and negligence. I think the purpose of this article is to spread awareness about the cause and stories of H.I.V and to inspire more people to be like Cedric because he cannot help everyone. The genre of the article is nonfiction with formal language which makes it very easy for the audience to understand. The audience are the general people and also individuals fighting with the disease. </span>
September 26, 2019 at 7:24 am #305Ange LouisParticipant<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>The article is about bringing awareness and educating the United States on the HIV/AIDS epidemic that’s happening in our country especially in the south. This is done through the eyes of Cedric Sturdevant , a project coordinator at My Brother’s Keeper, who is a big advocate for gay and bisexual African Americans living with HIV/AIDS. He helps them by providing support through routine check ins, prescription drug deliveries, and mainly being a male figure that they can talk to about their situations. The author of this article is Linda Villarosa, an American author and journalist, who is a former executive editor of Essence magazine. She is a lesbian African American woman who can understand the struggle young African American gay/bisexual men with being open about their sexuality and having the illness. The audience is the general population and the government so they can be informed about the virus to come up with ways they can help. The purpose of this article was to educate and inform people who don’t know about the virus, disprove any stigma that surrounds the virus and the people it affects, and also show young African American men with the illness that they can reach out for support, treatment, and whatever else they may need to continue living a happy life. Villarosa’s stance is that there can be a lot more done to help African American men on their journeys with HIV/AIDS. In the south, there needs to be more effort put in place so that treatment, medication, testing, and open conversations can be had about HIV/AIDS. She also feels that there needs to be more government funding put into research about the virus instead of going overseas. The tone of this piece was very informative but as a reader, I can tell that Villarosa was also passionate about disproving the stigmas around African American gay/bisexual with the illness because she feels it’s one of the factors that is preventing those infected the help that they need. The language is formal and the genre is a research article that includes scientific facts/research and real life stories.</span>
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