NAACP: HIV cases higher among blacks because of inequality, or something

Why is the HIV virus 10 times more prevalent among blacks than other races?  According to the NAACP, it's because of unprotected sexsocial inequality.

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People National Health Manager Rev. Keron Sadler said the organization wants to change that, and teaching through black churches is crucial to doing so.

Sadler said her organization spent a year studying 11 cities across the country, including Detroit, to explore the problem of disproportionately high HIV rates in black communities, as well as ways to address the problem.

The civil rights organization created a manual, "The Black Church and HIV: The Social Justice Imperative," which it hopes encourages dialogue about the problem among the nation's 21,000 black church leaders and their parishioners.

Unveiled last week in conjunction with the NAACP's 103rd birthday, the manual frames the problem as a "social justice issue" rather than blaming behavior, Sadler said.

"In a white community, they have an option to go to get tested, go and receive treatment, it's more likely that they will have insurance to pay for treatment, to pay for testing," Sadler said. "It is not because black people do something different or worse... It's because we don't have the same privileges other people may have."