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Article: Aids, Africa and Racism.
- Article from:
- Monthly Review
- Article date:
- September 1, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Monthly Review Foundation, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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It has been almost ten years since the first AIDS cases were reported among American white male homosexuals. And although today seventy percent of people with AIDS live in the United States, it is "common knowledge" that AIDS originated in Africa, that it is the Dark Continent's number one killer, and that most of those "marked for death" (in the gruesome prose of the Panos Institute) live in Africa.
Thanks to the proselytizing power of the uncritical media, this knowledge is common enough. But how true are the facts that lie behind this knowledge? And what if these facts are untrue, or at the minimum exaggerated? What are the consequences of such a social ...