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AAPRC Weekly: Phill Wilson

Phill Wilson
Executive Director
Black AIDS Institute
Los Angeles CA

Phill Wilson is a marathon man––literally and metaphorically. The former high school runner returned to his old sport in 1999 and started training for marathons. "When you run a marathon you literally run it one step at a time," Wilson explains. "The thought of running 26 miles is overwhelming, but the thought of making just one more step is something that most of us can always do."

The marathon philosophy––one step at a time––is a theme Wilson puts into practice everyday. The writer and activist has lived with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, for 24 years. He has had fullblown AIDS for 14 of those years. In spite of the fatal reality of his status, his diagnosis has never been an ending. In fact, for Wilson, the diagnosis was just the beginning.

Wilson was infected in 1980, but there was no such thing as an HIV test. He didn't get an official diagnosis until 1985, but he began to suspect his status long before then. "AIDS was much, much more frightening then because during those days people were often dead in three months," Wilson recalls. "A long time survivor was someone who lived nine months."

What was just as upsetting to Wilson was the attitude in the 1980s that HIV/AIDS was a White, gay male disease. Even before his own HIV status was confirmed, Wilson never bought into that. "I remember the saying that my grandmother used…'when White folks get a cold, Black folks get pneumonia,'" says Wilson. "I knew that if this was a disease that was killing White folks, and people like Rock Hudson were getting the disease…and rich folks, then it was going to be really, really bad for us."

Unfortunately, he was right. Today African-Americans and Latinos make up 66 percent of all new AIDS cases in the U.S. Among women, African-American women make up 73 percent of new HIV cases. Among children with AIDS, two-thirds are African-American. Many find the statistics shocking, but none of the 21st century numbers is a surprise to Wilson. Twenty years ago, Wilson was working with a group that urged the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to publish HIV/AIDS data by race. When he saw the numbers, Wilson realized that African- Americans were already being affected in significant numbers. "We represented 25 percent of the AIDS cases as early as 1984," says Wilson. "Today people are talking about the changing face of AIDS, but Black folks have always been disproportionately impacted."

Starting in 1990, Wilson, who had majored in fine arts and Spanish literature at Illinois' Wesleyan University, took on a number of public policy roles related to the struggle against the disease. From 1990 to 1993 he served as the AIDS coordinator for the City of Los Angeles, and was director of policy and planning at AIDS Project Los Angeles from 1993 to 1996. He was co-chair of the Los Angeles County HIV Health Commission from 1990 to 1995, and was an appointee to the HRSA AIDS Advisory Committee from 1995 to 1998.

"I grew up in the housing projects on the South Side of Chicago. One of the things that I learned from that experience is that we cannot survive unless we are actively engaged in our own survival," says Wilson of his fervent devotion to activism. "I was born in 1956 in an America that was totally intolerable for Black people. So we knew that the world had to change and it would not and could not change without our proactive aggressive participation."

Wilson's efforts in the struggle against HIV/AIDS came to a halt, briefly, in 1996, when his disease surged forth and nearly killed him. "By 1999 I had gotten considerably better and I felt it was time for me to go back to work," he recalls. "As I looked around to see what was the state of AIDS in America at that point in time, what I saw was that, in the intervening years, there had been progress in some communities, but there had been very little progress in the Black community."

So Wilson founded the Black AIDS Institute, the only Black HIV/AIDS think tank in the United States. The Institute is devoted to stopping the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Black communities. It develops public and private sector HIV policies, conducts training, offers technical assistance, disseminates information and provides advocacy from a uniquely and unapologetically Black point of view.

His work with the Institute has taken Wilson and his message about HIV among African-Americans across the globe. He was the coordinator of the International Community Treatment and Science Workshop at the nternational AIDS Conferences in Geneva, Switzerland, Durban, South Africa, and Barcelona, Spain.

In 2001 Wilson added the title of columnist to his resume, writing three monthly columns––all of which focus on AIDS and health as it impacts Black people. One column appears in Plus magazine. The second is syndicated through the National Newspaper Publishers Association, and carried in about 55 Black newspapers around the country. The third column appears monthly on the website, www.blackaids.org. "I talk about stigma. I talk about rejection. I talk about self-esteem and about self-love and about accountability and responsibility," says Wilson of his editorial writings. "My columns give practical advice on how to protect yourself from HIV, and how to take care of yourself should you become infected."

Wilson's writing also has been published in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Weekly, Essence, Ebony, Poz, PLUS, VIBE, Jet and Arise.

His efforts and undaunted spirit have earned him recognition both nationally and internationally. Among the many awards and honors is one from The Ford Foundation which identified Wilson as one of Twenty Leaders for a Changing World (2001). He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the 1994 World AIDS Summit in Paris, and has worked extensively on HIV/AIDS policy, research, prevention, and treatment issues in Russia, Latvia, the Ukraine, the UK, Holland, Germany, France, Mexico, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, and India.

"I count my blessings. I have been living with this disease for a long time and not everybody was able," says Wilson. "So I have a responsibility to do everything I can to stop this disease. It is my job to urge other Black folks to do the same. I have a family that loves me…I'm very lucky that I have not once ever had to use critical human and emotional resources to deal with family rejection…Sadly, one of the reasons why Black people with AIDS die so much quicker than White people with AIDS in this country is because too many of us have to deal with the rejection or the potential rejection or the fear of rejection by our family."

In his free time, Wilson spends time with his family, goes running and relaxes in his garden, tending roses and gathering the energy to keep going. His struggle is daunting, but he's not disheartened. He's not stopping. "The whole point of running a marathon, for me, is symbolism for how you fight the AIDS epidemic," says Wilson. "A marathon is not a sprint. The AIDS epidemic is not a sprint."

One of your columns runs in African-American newspapers around the country. In light of the reputation that the African-American community has for shying away from the issues surrounding HIV/AIDS, what do you think of the responses you're getting from your readers?

I've been pleasantly surprised at the response my columns have received. It's been my experience that Black folks want to know about HIV/AIDS. My readers don't seem to be afraid of the issue. And thankfully, the National Newspaper Publisher's Association papers (the distributor of one of my columns) is not shying away from running the column. I'm in about 50 Black papers across the country now.

Do you have an ultimate goal in mind in terms of what you hope to accomplish with your columns?

My goal in everything I do is to bring about the end of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Black communities. We can stop AIDS dead in its tracks, but we each have to do our part. I'm just trying to do my part.

You have three different columns, all of them centered around HIV/AIDS. Do you have an established criteria for topic selection? What's that process like for you?

I usually begin with what's topical. I go from there to how I'm feeling. Finally, I think about what's pissing me off at the moment. In the end, I blend those three ideas and figure out how to motivate my readers to do something. When Black women are 20 times more likely to have AIDS than White women and 15 Black men die from AIDS everyday, each of us needs to be doing something everyday!

As someone who is living with HIV/AIDS, how much of your own life ends up in your writing? How protective are you of your privacy?

On some level every column I write is personal. I'm like the guy on the "Hair Club for Men." I try to be both the commentator and the subject.

The 15th International AIDS Conference recently took place in Bangkok. How did the Black AIDS Institute take part? What do Americans, particularly African-Americans need to know about what's happening with HIV/AIDS globally?

The Black AIDS Institute was the leading, actually, we were the only Black American voice from the Bangkok AIDS conference. There were less than twenty abstracts with "African-American" in the title. That's out of nearly 6000 abstracts. Not one oral presentation (the most prestigious presentation) was about the African-American epidemic. Think about it African-Americans represent over 54% of the U.S. epidemic and we were virtually "blacked out" of the most important AIDS conference of the year. I think the message for African-Americans has to be "get a grip." This disease is having its way with us and we aren't even in the game. At the rate we're going, the AIDS epidemic will be over in Africa long before it is over among African- Americans. Soon African leaders are going to be talking about all the Black AIDS orphans in the United States.

If you had to give the current U.S. administration a grade on its policies regarding HIV/AIDS, how would it fare? Why?

I think the administration deserves some props on the global front. They've fallen short on delivery, but I do think they are at least making an effort on the global stage. On the domestic front, the current U.S. policies are a complete failure. Prevention efforts are being undermined; flat funding for treatment and care is causing a total collapse of the HIV/AIDS health delivery system. Inappropriate emphasis on abstinence only and total rejection of funding for needle exchange programs are resulting in the loss of Black lives.

From your perspective as an activist who's been involved with the struggle against HIV/AIDS since the very beginning, what are you most optimistic about?

I'm optimistic because I know we can stop this epidemic. Failure is not an option. We have the tools to bring HIV/AIDS to its knees. The question is do we have the will, compassion and love of self, to use those tools effectively.

As someone who's on the forefront of the struggle with HIV/AIDS in the African-American community, what would you say is the most important issue on the table?

In a word, the most important HIV/AIDS issue facing African-Americans, is mobilization. HIV/AIDS is the most devastating health threat of our times, and we are not mobilized to fight it. We need to mobilize young people, especially students on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) campuses. We need to mobilize Black women. We need to mobilize gay men. We need to mobilize straight Black men. Each and everyone of us can do something, and each and everyone of us must do it.

What's one thing individuals can do, right now, to effect positive change?

Individuals can do four things:
Get informed. What you don't know can kill you.
Get tested. Knowing your HIV status and that of your partner can save your life.
Get treated. HIV/AIDS is not the automatic death sentence it once was. Treatments are available. But you have to know your HIV status in order to get treated.
Get involved. Black AIDS organizations are dying on the vine because Black people are not stepping up to the plate. The Black AIDS Institute, along with the Balm in Gilead, the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, Outreach Inc., and others are calling for the first national mass Black AIDS mobilization. Every Black institution in this country needs to make HIV/AIDS a top priority. Every Black leader needs to be talking more about HIV/AIDS.

Tell us one thing people might be surprised to know about you.

I've been living with HIV for 24 years and full blown AIDS 14 years. I'm a marathon runner.

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