STDs plague racial minority communities

Society and the role it plays on us may be the cause in racial minorities having the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases in America.
 "Society in a way manipulates us into getting STD's.For example, a man has a 15-year-old son that is a virgin and the father and friends pressure him to have sex. Givining into the pressure he has sex and contracts an STD. That is society invoking this macho man stereotype on to us which in the end only causes bad," said senior nutrition major Finn Jackson.
 Jackson also believes the less restrictive laws on modern entertainment are a factor in the rise of minority STD's.
 "Movies and television shows were not as sexual as they are now, we tend to over indulge in stuff and we usually do not understand everything we do has consequences," Jackson added.
 According to the California Department of Health, African Americans made up about 70 percent of gonorrhea cases and almost half of chlamydia and syphilis cases in 2007. Hispanics comprise 15 percent of the U.S. population, but accounted for 19 percent of all chlamydia cases.
Almost 50 percent of the approximately 19 million STD's reported each year affect people 15 to 24 years of age.
In 2007, African Americans comprised approximately six percent of the population in California, but represented about 23 percent of chlamydia cases and 40 percent of gonorrhea cases in California. African American gonorrhea rates were almost 12 times higher than those of whites. The rates of STDs are significantly higher among adolescents, young adults, and African Americans.
"Many black and Hispanic families are impoverished which opens up a lot of difficulties in their lives. When you have low resources like horrible schools and no health insurance it is easy to fall victim to societies fate for minorities," said sophomore mass communication major Khaya Carter.
She added, "A lot of minorities are not educated on STD's cause of poor school systems so when the time comes for them to have sex they honestly do not know how to protect themselves."
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention states that nearly half of all black women were infected with herpes compared to five percent of all white women affected with the disease.
"Sometimes when a black woman gets an STD she will just sweep it under the rug and do nothing about it. Everyone paints this picture of black women as not classy or infected anyway, whereas white women are seen as pure or clean by society, so they will make sure they keep that appearance up," said freshman sociology major Yasmine Peaks.
Octavia Jones, a senior business major, wants minorities to dismiss the pressures society puts on them and to become more informed .
"We need to keep getting tested frequently, and we need to stop worrying about what other people are doing or what we can not do and just do what is good for us," said Jones.