Racial Justice

Black people make up about 13% of the U.S. population. Yet according to data from AIDSVu, 40% of people living with HIV in 2020 were Black, and Black people accounted for 42% of new HIV diagnoses that year. There are six times as many Black men living with HIV as white men, and new HIV diagnoses among Black women outpace diagnoses in white women by a 17-to-1 margin. Nearly two-thirds of Black transgender women are living with HIV.

It needs to be said: there is nothing about Black biology or genetics that makes us more susceptible to HIV. These disparities are driven by social, economic, and structural inequities. The legacy of white supremacy and the persistence of racism in our health care system render Black people vulnerable to disease and death. Racial justice is not peripheral to our work. It is central to it.

Our Commitments

AIDS United will continue to advance and invest in racial justice, Black, queer and trans liberation, geographic equity, harm reductionist approaches, and the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV. We recognize that it is our responsibility to proactively address the racial disparities in our community, work that includes addressing any racial inequities within our own organization.

AIDS United commits to operationalize these commitments by ensuring that in our implementation of the 2023–2026 strategic plan, our policies, programs and portfolios are designed utilizing a harm reduction approach, racial and health equity framework, and by developing organizational implementation plans with measurable indicators for investment and impact that demonstrate our commitments to Black and Latinx communities, people living with HIV, queer and trans communities, people who use drugs, and the US South.

Policy Council Racial Justice Framework

AIDS United's Public Policy Council has adopted a racial justice framework to its by-laws, defining racial justice as "the collective practice of people of color and their allies to identify, dismantle, and heal from the many external and internal harms of structural and institutional racism." The council consciously works to transform institutions that enable white supremacy and compromise the health and wellbeing of communities of color.

This commitment is operationalized through the AIDS United Racial Justice Index, a tool created through a collaboration of council members and community experts to help organizations in the HIV field identify areas of growth with respect to racial justice.

Initiatives Centered on Communities of Color