Power from Boardroom to Bedroom
Clarence J. Fluker

African American young professionals continue to storm the boardrooms of our nation and move up the career ladder. The next generation of policy makers, business leaders, nonprofit executives and academics navigate the road to professional success with skills like discipline, steadfastness, confidence, intelligence and a sheer will to take control and power of career destiny. Unfortunately, the power to take control over ones professional destiny is not always transferred to ones personal destiny as it relates to sexual health.

According to the most recent reports by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) the HIV/AIDS epidemic in African American communities is a continuing public health crisis for the United States. The numbers are staggering. Of the estimated 1.1 million people living with HIV in the U.S., almost half (46%) are black/African American despite the fact blacks only represent approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population. African Americans of all ages, sexes and sexual orientations continue to account for a higher proportion of cases at all stages of HIV/AIDS compared with members of any other race or ethnic group.

HIV/AIDS, like any other sexually transmitted disease (STD) doesn’t care if you make six figures or none. Nor does it care about if you attended a community college or strolled the halls of an Ivy League institution. The large numbers of infections of HIV/AIDS and STDs certainly includes young professionals who have and do engage in high risk sexual behaviors. The leading cause of HIV among African Americans is transmission is high risk sexual behavior. This is where the power comes in.

Just as there are several ways to take control of your professional self and exert control in a boardroom, there are quite a few strategies to do the same for your sexual health, taking power in the bedroom.

• Know your status. If you are sexually active you should routinely be tested for HIV/AIDS and other STDs. There is a significant power in knowing your HIV status and early detection, if you are infected, means better care and treatment. Learning that you are HIV negative and free from other STDs is powerful as well. It can serve as an incentive to keep practicing safe sex or abstaining. Visit,http://www.hivtest.org/index.cfm to find a testing location near you.

• Be powerful with your voice! Before engaging in sex with your partner(s) ask the person(s) about their sexual history and their HIV status. Candid conversations about sexual history can offer a great amount of information that can help you better assess your desire to be intimate with the person(s). On job interviews, at networking events and many other places in our professional life we ask questions because we want to make informed decisions about how to best move forward and if we trust the information being given to us. The bedroom should be no exception. Speak up, be honest, and be clear.

• Protect yourself. If you choose to be sexually active, choosing to use a condom is the most effective way to reduce the risk of becoming infected with HIV or any other STD. All parties involved in the sexual act are responsible (regardless of gender) for making sure that condoms are present and used properly. Be prepared at all times. There are a number of brands and types. Choose the one that works best for both you and your partner(s). If you inject drugs – use only new needles and don’t share needles with anyone else.

• Abstain. Abstinence from sex or from using intravenous drugs are also effective alternatives and virtually eliminates the risk of HIV infection.

• Go public. Continue to advocate to your public officials and nonprofit organizations for funding, services and programs for HIV/AIDS education, prevention and treatment. The epidemic continues to spread and the attention to the cause and how it affects people of color is spreading thin. Don’t be afraid to go public with the message that HIV is still a threat to many shared communities.

Dare to be a powerful in all facets of your life.