There Are No “High Risk Groups…Only High Risk Activities” (1988)

And that is a whole lot of folks. It was years ago, I was infected. I had pneumocystis pneumonia. I didn't know I was infected with the virus. I mean, my life just continued as, you know, like everything was all right, up until the time I got pneumocystis pneumonia. And a lot of, in a lot of cases, that's the way it happens. Unless you know your antibody status, you don't know. You just, unless you have gone to the doctor. Were you in one of those high-risk groups to be concerned about? Yes. Was it that you just, the symptoms didn't jar something or what, or you didn't have the information or something? Well, I had a lot of information, but what I saw on television was gay white men, which was wrong, you know, it was totally wrong. And I really kind of believed that I was a victim of that. I am not a victim of that. Explain what you mean by that? The only information I had was that this affected gay white men.

It doesn't bother me because I'm black, or it doesn't bother me because I'm not gay. It doesn't bother me because I'm not this, or I'm not that. AIDS is a virus that will attack blood. Everybody that lives has blood. And if you have blood run into your system, believe me, the virus loves it. So nobody's free of this because you don't know what another person has done or where that person has been. That person may not know, or the person that they will with does not know. Okay. I've been shown a sign about the phone number. I'm not sure if this is the one that we're supposed to get. 3, 3, 2, AIDS have individuals call 3, 3, 2, A-I-D-S and get right on the end and call us on this so we can talk to each other about it. All right. We say you didn't know you were in a high risk group. You didn't test yourself and tell the symptoms became full blown, or at least enough to why going for medical treatment. Did you want to add something with that David? Yeah. Let's throw in the trash can. There's whole myth of high risk groups. There are only high risk activities.

And those high risk activities are unprotected sex, whether it's vaginal or anal or oral sex, or the sharing of needles and syringes and shooting up drugs. You know, cocaine, smacks, speed, heroin, whatever. Or shooting up steroids like so many of our young athletes doing. And of course, so many of our wonderful young women who are infected are in great danger of giving the virus to their unborn baby. Well, that's how it's done. It's activities. It isn't groups. All right.