photo credit: Johnnie Kornegay
**FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE**
Leaders of Color in the HIV Movement Form A Strategic Working Group To Advance the Movement Towards Racial Justice
CONTACT: Naina Khanna, (510) 681-1169, [email protected] or
Charles Stephens, (404) 550-4697, [email protected]
February 21, 2018: In July 2017, over 20 leaders of color convened in New York City to begin articulating a racial justice analysis for the HIV field. From that meeting, A Declaration of Liberation: A Framework for Building a Racially Justice and Strategic HIV Movement was released by the group in September 2017. Today, we announce the formation of an interim steering committee for a newly created network of leaders of color advancing racial justice in the HIV movement: HIV Racial Justice Now.
Recognizing the urgent need for a national voice centering racial justice in the HIV movement, the interim steering committee will offer a strategic vision for the new network to ensure an inclusive, intersectional, and revolutionary political analysis. HIV Racial Justice Now’s long term goals are to: support and advance leadership of people of color in the HIV community; advance racial justice analysis within HIV policy advocacy; and to dismantle white supremacy and elevate accountability to Black and brown communities in organizations serving and advocating for people living with and vulnerable to HIV.
Last summer’s convening was jointly organized by the Counter Narrative Project and Positive Women’s Network – USA, amid a reactionary political climate openly and virulently hostile to people of color and a profoundly disturbing resurgence of white supremacist activity nationwide condoned at the highest levels of government. In drafting the framework, leaders pushed to think beyond reactive, defensive perceptions of to envision an HIV movement that truly centers racial justice and where organizations serving the most impacted communities are accountable to those communities in word and deed. Next steps for HIV RACIAL JUSTICE NOW include convening virtual and in-person discussions on the framework and its implementation in 2018, training HIV organizations to utilize racial justice in their work and organizational development, and creating supportive spaces for leaders of color.
To get involved in HIV RACIAL JUSTICE NOW! and stay tuned on our next steps, join our mailing list by clicking (link)
For more information on the framework contact Naina Khanna at [email protected] or Charles Stephens at [email protected]
