A Million Man March Against STDs?

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According to a new CDC study, 1 in 4 American teens has an STD. Specifically, reports CNN, they have one of these: “human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer and affected 18 percent of girls studied; chlamydia, which affected 4 percent; trichomoniasis, 2.5 percent; and herpes simplex virus, 2 percent.”

As unsettling as this news is, it’s downright mindbending that black girls’ infection rates are more than double those for whites and Mexican Americans; nearly half had at least one STD. It’s hard to figure out how to grapple with these numbers; they implicate religious repression, ingrained patriarchy, lack of basic sex ed, pathetic AIDS awareness, nihilism, and childhoods interrupted much too soon. Not just by the STD, but also by the poorly thought out sex that likely caused it.

Nearly half of black teenaged girls has an STD. My daughter will be a teen in only nine years, my son in only six. This is the reality they’ll be facing?I wonder how long it will take the usual suspects to make this, too, a conversation about racism. That’s a hell of a lot easier than tackling such an intractable problem head on. Especially since the conversation that we should have can’t be had without calling black men on the carpet.

We converged on Jena, Louisiana. We converged for the Million Man March. Will we converge on the local high school, or even more daringly, the local Baptist Church, and take care of our children? I’m betting on a resounding silence.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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