According to the 2000 U.S. Census, African Americans make up 12.3 percent of the U.S. population, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in 2003 blacks made up half of the AIDS cases diagnosed in the United States.

“African American kids face more risks than others,” said Andre Robinson of the Black Coalition on AIDS. “HIV has been leveling off and decreasing among all but young black men.”

Robinson said the problem of AIDS was worse because some African Americans are ill informed and they still don’t know much about AIDS.

According to Cynthia Tucker, a columnist for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the highest rate of AIDS infection in the United States occurs among closeted bisexual black men.

Tucker wrote in a recent Op/Ed that some black men like to have sex with other men on the “down low,” a term used by some bisexual men of color to refer to men who have sex with other men without the knowledge of their female partners.

If black men open up their sexuality to the community, Tucker wrote, it will bring homophobia toward them and they don’t want to deal with it at home or in their churches.

Gregory M. Herek, a psychology professor at UC Davis said specific racial groups pay more attention to the AIDS topic when someone of the same ethnic group talks it over with them and explains the situation.

Robinson had similar thoughts.

“It would be more effective to get the message across to youth if you link it to hip-hop culture and artists, because youth listen to them,” he said.