Not in My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community [Paperback]

Gil L. Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2006

In this landmark collection of personal essays, stories, brief memoirs, and polemics, a broad swath of black Americans unite to bear witness to the devastation AIDS has wrought on their community.  Not in My Family marks a new willingness on the part of black Americans—whether prominent figures from the worlds of politics, entertainment, or sports, or just ordinary folks with extraordinary stories — to face the scourge that has affected them disproportionately for years. Editor Gil Robertson has enlisted a remarkable group of contributors, including performers like Patti LaBelle, Mo’Nique, and Hill Harper; bestselling authors like Randall Robinson and Omar Tyree; political leaders like Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders; religious leaders like Rev. Calvin Butts, and many, many more.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reflecting on the diagnosis of a husband, the loss of a friend or the survival of a mother, the 58 first-person narratives collected here give voice to bald statistics, such as that AIDS is the #1 killer of black women between the ages of 24 and 34. The writers include a "woman living luxuriously in the suburbs of Los Angeles," a man who "found excitement in the orgy scene," someone who "discovered [his] own feelings for AIDS through other people" and another who can "hardly remember what it was like not to have HIV." Famous voices, such as Al Sharpton, Patti LaBelle and Randall Robinson, as well as four congressional representatives are here, but the full power of this book rises from the personal testimonies of African-Americans writing from varied sexual, gender, class and lifestyle perspectives. This passionate collection is strengthened by William Yarbro's context-setting essay and highly practical advice from Jocelyn Elders, Herndon Davis and Dyana Williams. "Having watched countless accounts of the virus's impact on the African American community," Robertson writes, "I was dismayed by how few African Americans were an active part of this dialogue." Not any longer: those voices are loud and clear. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Gil L. Robertson IV is a journalist whose work has appeared in Essence, Billboard, Black Enterprise, the Source, Los Angeles Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution, among others. He has appeared on the Tavis Smiley Show, CNN, and BET, and his syndicated column, The Robertson Treatment, appears in over 30 newspapers, reaching more than 2 million readers across the country.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Agate Bolden; 1 edition (December 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932841245
• ISBN-13: 978-1932841244
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #994,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A heart-wrenching collection of very moving AIDS memoirs, December 18, 2006

By 

Lloyd Williams "Kam Williams" (Princeton, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Not in My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community (Paperback)

"Black America, we have a problem.
HIV/AIDS is running rampant through our communities. Many of us are sick and dying and living in fear and shame, and many of us who aren't afflicted are living in denial, detachment, ignorant, and glass houses. Worse yet, too many people in our communities act as if they are immune to the problem altogether.
`Not me.' `Not in my family!' And that's the problem.
Not in My Family is a weapon of warfare, a tool of empowerment, and a manual on friendship. It includes lessons before dying, lessons on living, lessons on love, and lessons on letting go. It is a collection of colorful stories, hard truths, and differing opinions from people of various lifestyles strung together to teach us not only how to survive, but how to thrive in the face of HIV and AIDS.
It is a dose of truth to our community. And hopefully, the truth will make us free."
-- Excerpted from the Introduction

In the United States, AIDS is increasingly an African-American epidemic, taking a disproportionate toll on the black community where someone is ten times as likely to contract the disease as in a white neighborhood. According to Gil Robertson, many factors have contributed to the explosion of this frightening phenomenon, including "dysfunction, fear, poverty, and lack of information." In fact, he suggests, that upon close inspection, we find the causes to be almost as plentiful as the number of individuals infected.
For this reason, Robertson, decided to edit an anthology of essays by folks touched by the disease, whether they might having a loved one coping with the ailment, be personally infected, on the front lines as an activist, or modestly ministering to patients. In Gil's case, his brother, Jeffrey, was diagnosed as HIV-positive over 20 years ago, and the fallout visited upon the family in the form of "shock, fear and regret" has taken the Robertsons years to overcome.
Fortunately, Gil, a gifted, syndicated journalist whose work has appeared in Essence, Billboard, Black Enterprise and The Los Angeles Times, had the wherewithal to channel his energy positively in terms of tackling a subject which has heretofore been left woefully unaddressed. For AIDS is a scourge likely to ravage the black community exponentially unless it wakes up and faces the fact that Silence = Death.
Thus, Not in My Family: AIDS in the African-American Family is an urgent, informative, groundbreaking book because it takes AIDS out of the inner-city closet by initiating an intelligent dialogue designed to shake both brothers and sisters out of their complacency and thereby inspire everyone to action. Among the sixty or so contributors to this timely text are entertainers, such as Patti LaBelle, Jasmine Guy, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Mo'Nique and Hill Harper; physicians, including Dr. Donna Christensen, DR. James Benton and Dr. Joycelyn Elders; AIDS activists Phill Wilson and Christopher Cathcart; ministers, like Reverend Al Sharpton and Calvin Butts; best-selling authors, such as Randall Robinson and Omar Tyree; and Congressmen Barbara Lee, Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Gregory Meeks.
But just as moving as the clarion call sounded by any of these celebs, are the heartfelt stories related by relative unknowns with out any pedigree. For instance, 22 year-old Marvelyn Brown talks about how having AIDS has taught her the true meaning of friendship. Jaded judge Ivory Brown waxes poetic about her late friend and hairdresser who, before he expired, inspired her to overhaul her life by seizing the day.
Dena Gray starts her chapter with an entry from her diary which describes December 20, 1991 as "the worst day of my life," because "I found out today that I'm HIV-positive." Such a powerfully simple, straightforward, and sobering statement can't help but halt a reader in his or her tracks. Shawna Ervin, meanwhile, recounts how she reacted, at the tender age of 11, to learning that her best friend had contracted the illness via a blood transfusion, and how they remained close, in spite of the stigma, till Andrea's demise ten years later.
Filled to overflowing with such almost sacred moments, Not in My Family is a must read, but not merely as a heart-wrenching collection of moving AIDS memoirs. For perhaps more significantly, this seminal work simultaneously serves as the means of kickstarting candid dialogue about an array of pressing, collateral topics, ranging from homophobia to incarceration to brothers on the down low to low self-esteem to the use of condoms to the role of the Church in combating this virtually-invisible genocide quietly claiming African-Americana.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars UPSCALE MAGAZINE REVIEW, December 17, 2006

By 

Kenyetta Dudley - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not in My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community (Paperback)

Not in My Family: AIDS in the African American Community grips its readers form the opening words. This collection of personal essay by numerous celebrities including Mo'Nique, Byron Cage, Patti LaBelle and Sheryl Lee Ralph, Randall Robison, Omar Tyree, Hill Harper, Jasmine Guy and Rev. Al Sharpton is edited by Gil L. Robertson IV and explores the debilitating disease that has quietly ravage countless families in the black community.

This candid compilation pokes its head into the darkest corners of the African-American psyche and experience. A black woman faced with the infection of her beloved drug-abusing bisexual husband and a swinging corporate America nephew recalls the connection, crisis and journey of those within his own family. The account of Mr. Marcus,, the highly popular adult film star, who feel compelled to have sex on camera after being recruited in Las Vegas, reveals the historical wounds that his family's legacy inflicted upon him.

Robertson weaves personal and heart-wrenching experiences that shed light on the dire need that exists throughout the African Diaspora. This anthology should be "used to stop the enemy in his tracks," as Robertson prescribes. Not in My Family is a guide and an icebreaker. It is thought provoking, sincere and heartfelt. It is necessary.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ebony Magazine Review, December 15, 2006

By 

Contributor - See all my reviews

This review is from: Not in My Family: AIDS in the African-American Community (Paperback)

NOT IN MY FAMILY: AIDS IN THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY, edited by Gil L. Robertson, a journalist whose work has appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, is a landmark collection of essays that gives testament to the devastation of AIDS in Black America.

The statistics are indisputable: African-Americans are withstanding the worst of the AIDS epidemic in America. In NOT IN MY FAMILY, Blacks from all walks o life attempt to address the matter by answering questions such as: How can the nation transcend cultural barriers to address the devastation? And how can the Black community combat HIV/AIDS when denial has surrounded the disease for so long?

The collection includes essays from entertainers Patti LaBelle, Mo'Nique and Hill Harper; best-selling authors Randall Robinson and Omar Tyree; political leaders Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and former US Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders; and religious leaders that include the Rev. AL Sharpton and the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III. Butts, pastor
of Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City, writes a poignant portrait of a young woman who contracted the disease from her drug-abusing spouse. "I told her that AIDS is a disease that can be contacted like other diseases," Butts writes. "I also said, `hold firm to the truth, God Loves you." Butts also addresses changing attitudes within the church about the disease and how it is contacted. "While I would not include myself among those leaders with in the Black church who have been callous to members suffering from AIDS, I have made some errors along the way. In that way, I am no different from any of us. Of course, as a minister and community leader, I am particularly concerned about what I say and the image I project..."

NOT IN MY FAMILY presents powerful stories about a scourge on the African American community, and offers insight that can likely lead to effective change.