Hurt people hurt people. This is the first thought that came to mind after hearing rapper DaBaby’s recent comments in Miami before a crowd of thousands, saying, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, or any of them deadly sexually transmitted diseases, that’ll make you die in two to three weeks, then put your cellphone lighter up!” He went on to demean women and LGBTQ men.
DaBaby’s inaccurate and harmful words fuel the stigma we fight every day at the Gilead COMPASS Faith Coordinating Center at Wake Forest University. We were among 11 HIV advocates across the South who released an open letter to DaBaby this week offering to meet with him and get the facts out to the world that HIV is preventable, treatable, survivable and when treated properly, untransmittable.
His comments are not the first time DaBaby has stigmatized people living with HIV. In a recent music video he replaces certain misogynistic words with the word AIDS. He uses a funeral scene in a Black church to antagonize a Black police officer through hyper-masculine posturing. This video illustrates a multi-layered problem of pain within our Black communities that uses Black women and our LGBTQ siblings as punching bags. Most tragically, these choices are killing Black people by perpetuating toxic levels of HIV stigma.
As a sociologist and public health scholar, my work has shown a long history of marginalized men using inflammatory language to separate themselves from stigma. Rather than forming alliances, some use masculine or hetero-appearing privilege to elevate themselves at the expense of others. Stereotypes about LGBTQ people and Black men and women dehumanize us, create space for those in power to justify centuries of systematic denial of resources, and make our communities vulnerable to public health crises.
At our Faith Coordinating Center, we recognize how harmful stereotypes and stigma are reinforced by distorted interpretations of Scripture and bankrupt theologies. Jonathan Lee Walton, Christian Ethicist and Dean of Wake Forest University School of Divinity, beckons us in his book, A Lens of Love: Reading the Bible in Its World for Our World, to be courageous with our words and to adopt a posture of love rooted in justice and compassion.
In a polarizing world, it’s this type of ethic for living – one that challenges narrow beliefs and embraces the generosity of love -- that we seek to uplift.
We educate and work with faith communities in the South to address HIV-related stigma, especially in Black faith communities, by increasing access to resources and mobilizing leaders to advocate for equity. We all have a responsibility to elevate messages of love and acceptance and challenge anti-Black, anti-gay and misogynistic attitudes. The center is hosting a series of monthly workshops that are free and open to the public to directly address topics about Black sexuality, acceptance of LGBTQ community members, faith-based trauma-informed care and HIV/AIDS.
Here are some facts about HIV/AIDS everyone should know:
• HIV is not a death sentence
• People living with HIV are living long and healthy lives when they take their daily medication
• When they reach an undetectable viral load, they won’t pass the virus to their partners
• There are prevention medications that work very effectively to protect people from getting the virus
• People of all ages, genders, and race/ethnicities are vulnerable to HIV
• The people most vulnerable to HIV are those who have limited access to resources like healthcare and transportation
• People living with HIV are loved
Entertainers with platforms must do more to educate the public about HIV rather than peddle in uninformed stereotypes and stigmas. It’s time for DaBaby, and others like him, to be accountable.
Allison Mathews serves as executive director of the Gilead COMPASS Faith Coordinating Center and Research Fellow in Faith and Health in the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University.