Where is the love?

Ryan White (December 6, 1971 – April 8, 1990)

 "Where is the love 

you said was mine o' mine

'til the end of time?

Was it just a lie?

Where is the love?"

Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway singing "Where is the Love?"

_____________________________________________
This world is crazy. For real. Like real, real crazy.

I was trying to decide yesterday. Go there? Or not even go there? Meh. I decide to go there.

Here is the there.

You may or may not have heard this in the news, but I'm a nerdy doctor at a public hospital so this grabbed my attention. Alright, so check it.  In Pennsylvania, there's this not-for-profit school in Hershey that the chocolate bar mogul started back in the day. Anyways, they have a state of the art facility and bring kids who are academically able yet financially unable into their building for a chance at movin' on up Jefferson's style.

You with me so far? Cool.

Alright. So this school does good things and I am not disputing that. In addition to having all these bells and whistles for these pre-K through twelfth grade kids to partake in, they house them, too. Yep. It's a boarding school. And although I have never considered boarding school for my kids, on one day when I was super bored, I looked up how much they cost--and trust me, they cost a GRIP.  So, yeah. The folks behind this school waive that GRIP and bring deserving children there for a first-rate education.

That's cool, right?

Well. Here's what went down recently that got this boarding school in Hershey, Pennsylvania on my radar. This thirteen year-old boy who happens to be a scholar athlete and all around great kid (from what I read) applied to this school.  His mama, like a lot of mamas, is a little light in her pockets and surely appreciated the possibility of seeing her hard-working boy have the great fortune of going to this elite boarding school. On paper? He was a good fit.  Great student. Even an athlete. And yes, there was need.

But.

One small issue.  He is HIV positive.  And because of that little inconvenient truth, this chance-giving school ix-nayed his acceptance. They didn't even lie about it either. They flat out kept it real--which you must give them props for--and said that they could not allow him in their school because he posed a "direct threat" to the other 1,800 students in their student population.

Wait, huh?

Yeah. He got denied entry into a school in 2011 because he is HIV positive.

Well. Turns out that's not really a cool (or legal) thing to do. So this kid and his mama decided that they'd sue this school. And they filed their law suit this past Wednesday--just in time for World AIDS Day.

But the school? Oh they stood their ground. Pretty much saying that because they are a boarding school and a "unique learning environment" they can't take the chance, albeit a remote one, of putting others at risk. Yep.  The superintendent even got on CNN and stood the school's ground even more. Hell no. He won't go.

Did I mention? This kid takes antiretroviral drugs, too. In other words, he's under a doctor's care and does what he's supposed to do.  He's in great health and is just trying to do his thing to get ahead in this world.

But that's just too bad. Because if it's up to them, he ain't gonna be doing his thing there. Not on their watch. Around their kids. God forbid he accidentally bumps one of them in the hallway or the bathroom. Oh helllls naw.

So the potential concern is as follows--at least this is what the superintendent said on CNN.  She said that the issue is that there is some chance that at some point this boy might have sex with one of those one thousand eight hundred and something other kids and just maybe when he does, he will not use a condom and in turn infect them with his poisonous bodily fluids. Oh, and I almost forgot. He'd need to say to hell with his HIV medications to make this already remote possibility even worth discussing (and even then it would still sound crazy.)

Can I just state that the chances of one of the eighteen hundred kids in that school getting hurt, disabled or killed in an automobile accident are FAR greater than the individual risk they have of this (hello? responsible!) child exposing them to HIV? And surely--SURELY--they transport those students in cars or buses don't they? Uhhhh, okay. I guess the risk has to be socially acceptable.

Okay.

I at least give them credit for publicly recognizing that sexual intercourse is the most common way people get HIV in the world. Hell, at least they didn't publicly go running from the cafeteria screaming that he might give their forks and knives the cooties.

Sigh.

Now. Let me get on my nerdy soapbox and say just a couple of nerdy academic things that some folks reading this may or may not know:

1.  People who take antiretrovirals are less likely to transmit the virus. Yep. A big ol' study proved it. Gave people treatment and turned them loose with their HIV negative partners. The ones who were on meds were NINETY-SIX plus percent less likely to give it to their partners. Yep. The HPTN 052 study, in case you just needed to Google it.

2.  People who know they are HIV positive modify their behaviors. Yep. Turns out that if you KNOW you have HIV, you are more likely to protect others. Imagine that.

3.  (In case they didn't know.) You can't get HIV from kissing, hugging, sharing forks or any other casual contact. Oh and what about a nosebleed? Well, I guess if he stood over someone with blood pouring from his nose into their openly exposed bleeding wound, then yeah. Perhaps there could be risk.

4.  Saliva has no significant amount of HIV in it. This means that when this kid is ready he (and any other HIV positive person) can get their full French-kiss on with no concerns. Yep. Sure can.

5. Oh, and there are, like, 250, 000 plus people in the U.S. who are HIV positive but don't even know it. Which means even if you think you don't know anyone with HIV, chances are you're wrong in that assumption.


Yep. Those are the facts. Straight from a reputable source--a medicine nerd who has worked at a public hospital for over a decade with all sorts of "communicable diseases" -- including HIV. Which also happens to be in the same city as the Center for doggone DISEASE CONTROL and PREVENTION. Yep.

But so much for all of that. This is factual information and obviously this was not a decision made based upon that. Instead, it was based upon fear. I think we have learned over many, many years that facts and logic don't readily overcome fear. At all. And that fear is a powerful driver for some of the stupidest decisions of all time.

Alright (imagine me rolling neck and shadow boxing) I'm getting loose here, y'all.

And since I'm all the way loose (insert knuckle cracking and more shadow boxing here) why don't I just "unpack" another part of this story.

First let me digress and give my friend and fellow Grady doctor David M. credit for me using that term "unpack." He's a qualitative researcher that happens to be an HIV doctor, too--and he tells me that when researchers have a variable that is probably affecting a clinical outcome, that that variable needs to get investigated. . .or "unpacked" . . . .at some point.

Oh, and did I mention? He's young, gifted and black.

Well. Let me just unpack the fact that this 13 year-old HIV infected boy just happens to be African-American.

Gasp!

Yep. I said it. And consider it officially "unpacked."

Now. Let's just all close our eyes and imagine this deserving student as an angelic little doe-eyed thirteen year-old girl with a porcelain complexion and eyes like pools of cerulean water. Do you think this might change how this situation was viewed at all? Might it alter the level of threat from bright red down to a cool shade of yellow?

Or.

Would there have even been a case to be had at all?

Hmmm. Don't answer that. Let's just agree that it sucks that we live in a world where the answer to this is questionable. But since I'm loose, I'll just call it just like I see it. And here's how I see it. I sure do think that the amount of empathy felt for this child is somehow affected by his race. And the belief that he will run all over this campus spewing forth blood and semen everywhere he goes is, I think, somehow shaped by somebody's perception of people--especially male people--who look like him.

Perhaps maybe even unknowingly this is the deal. I don't even want to imagine that it is totally egregious and tied into some warped view of all black males as irresponsible hypersexual animals. Because that is exactly what he'd have to be to cause even a remote amount of plausible risk by having him in that school. Even if he's an honor student.

It's an ugly variable to imagine, isn't it? But a variable that must be unpacked all the same.

Alright, I know that part was getting uncomfortable so I'll pack it up and move on.

Ryan White was this really brave kid who got HIV from a factor 8 blood product transfusion needed for treatment of his hereditary hemophilia. When he was diagnosed in 1984, he was given 6 months to live. He was expelled from his Indiana middle school because he was HIV positive. Ryan was pretty much a courageous bad ass and he fought this decision in a very public legal battle. He even got some high profile people in his corner like Michael Jackson and Elton John. All that press changed him overnight from an unknown Joe Schmoe (literally) from Kokomo to the poster child for HIV and AIDS. Oh and Ryan and his six months? He lived another five years. Mmm hmm. He showed them.

But that was in 1984. And HIV was poorly understood then.  

Then, right?

Um, yeah.

See, here's the thing. There are some times when someone having HIV poses a risk. Like, say. . . .you are sexual partners with someone who has HIV and you don't know. Then hells yeah, you need to know and be able to protect yourself because there's a sho' nuff direct threat. But this? This?  Come on, man.

What bothers me the most about this is that it almost doesn't seem true. I liken this to those instances when I, a black person, think that most people are cool with black folks and how far they've come--and then something really crazy happens like Kramer from Seinfeld saying the n-word repetitively or someone hanging a noose from a tree in a Louisiana high school that says. . . uhh. . . hello? Or even when Mel Gibson had that cringe-worthy anti-Semitic rant. See? Things like that make me say:

"Damn. And here I was thinking things was cool."

Sorry, kids. Some times you just got to unpack the facts.

Now. I know for certain that there are many, many, many people who don't feel that way. That have no issues or qualms about black folks or Jewish folks or Muslim folks or gay folks or any kind of folks for that matter. And I know for certain that a lot of y'all reading this love all folks. (Unless, of course, you're Ms. Moon and we're referring to that Herman Cain--wink, wink.) Otherwise. . . . I know, I know. Not you.

But.

Everybody isn't you. I made the mistake of reading the ABC and CNN message boards on this topic. Looking to see what other American people had to say about this whole "sitch-i-ay-shun" (as my dad says). And OH, they had PUH-LENTY to say on it. Well. It turns out that a whooooole lot of people were one hundred percent KOOL and the GANG with that school's decision to say no way. So KOOL, in fact, that one of them even sent me a scathing email telling me how wrong I was to "put peoples' children at risk" after I spoke about it on television. (At least I didn't unpack the race variable!) Okay, okay. . . . I'll be the first to admit that it wasn't too hard to see where I stood on the subject. But I really, really wanted to believe that most people think this is as preposterous as I do. (I, at least, know for sure that there is a fully educated lawyer-dude somewhere in Mississippi that officially does not.)

Arrrgggh!

Where's the empathy, man? Where is the love? To hell with the fact that the boy got HIV in utero and not even because of something he accidentally or irresponsibly did. And to hell with the fact that his life expectancy is EXCELLENT.  Matter of fact, a lot points to the fact that many with HIV who are under care like he is, live long enough to die from causes other than HIV. It's fine if that's the facts. So long as he ain't in the same boarding school as THEIR kids.

Uhhh, yeah.  

Now I bet Ryan White is rolling over in his 1990 grave saying:

"Damn. And here I was thinking things was cool."


Sigh.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011 would have been Ryan White's 40th birthday.  Had he been diagnosed in 2011 instead of 1984, he would have lived to celebrate it. Hmmph. Some celebration.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts. Please. Weigh in.

***
Shout out to my friends and fellow Grady peeps who have dedicated their careers to making sure that the Ryan Whites-- and the Ryan Blacks -- of the world live to see as many birthdays as possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all that you do.

Grady doctor, friend, and all around wonderful person--Wendy A.

and of course my other fellow Grady doctor, friend, and rock-star, David M.

***
 And now playing on my mental iPod. . . .The Last Song. . .written by Bennie Taupin and sung by Elton John in memory of one of the bravest souls that ever lived--Ryan White. . . .

. . .and of course, Donny and Roberta asking the question that I'm still wondering, too.