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It's thought of like not me.
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That's them over there, that's not me.
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And in other instances,
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it's thought of we don't want to hear about it.
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We don't want to know.
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And I've heard people, I did a testing event
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in the African-American community in the area,
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and I had people tell me that.
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I don't want to know.
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And it's hard to explain to somebody why they should
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want to know.
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Excuse me.
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But that's what they told me, "I don't want to know."
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And then I saw,
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the African community came, and as soon as they found out
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what we were there for they took off like "Oh, no."
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They didn't even want to sign the outreach sheet,
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and it wasn't for anything that had anything to do with HIV.
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They didn't want to sign it or anything.
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So it's like hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil.
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And it's hard to get through, but I'm working on it.
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I'm not going to give up, I'm not going to give up.
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So what's your advice for that community,
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specifically around HIV?
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Get educated.
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Find out what may save your life.
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Because our community is ravished with HIV.
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And we need to be educated.
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If it's offered to you, accept that.
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I'm going to continue to go in that area.
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I don't live in the area but I still,
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I have, I'll put it that way, I have.
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And I'm going to continue, you know,
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it's really hard, see the thing in the community
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is that churches are one of the greatest
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institutions for African-Americans,
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and we listen to our pastors, and so if the pastors,
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whom are the leaders, don't speak out about it
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then it's not real to us.
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I've had some problems getting in some of the churches.
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I'll start it off, all I need is somebody to allow me in.
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I don't have a problem going in the church
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and telling my story.
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And I don't have a problem with people asking me.
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I've been in a couple of the churches,
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but my own church won't let me do that.
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And I have to be real and honest,
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I've tried and tried to get into my own church,
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and I'm not going to say the name,
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but I've tried and tried and I've gotten
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nothing but run-around.
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It even made me want to,
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matter of fact, I have stopped going to church for a while
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because I felt like they can talk about
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everything else but they can't,
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and it's only because they figure
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they don't want to talk about the sexual part.
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But what they don't understand is their kids are having sex.
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I don't care if they are PK's, pastors' kids,
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or people that go to church everyday,
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that doesn't stop those kids from having sex.
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Because when they leave church they go to wherever,
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they may go to a movie and do it in the back of a movie.
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I mean, at a park.
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You can't be with your kids 24/7,
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and you can't put anything past a child.
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A young person, you can't put anything past them.
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But you can give them the tools
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to be able to deal with whatever it is they're doing,
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and if they don't allow us to give them the tools,
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or allow anybody to give them the tools, then what?
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We have a whole community in despair
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from HIV and AIDS and other STDs.
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Sometimes they really do, sometimes pastors play God.
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Now, what would it look like if I'm preaching every Sunday,
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but I have all these people having unprotected sex
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or having sex and they're not married and they're fifteen,
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what would that say for me as a leader?
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Do you understand what I'm saying?
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But it's not on them, it's not on them.
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You're not God, you can't fix people.
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You cannot fix people, but you can help people.
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And I think the greatest way to help
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them do that is to educate them.
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I feel like this, if you don't want us to say anything,
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if you don't want a person to say
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anything to the kids about HIV,
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then you let us say it to you and you pass it on.
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That's all it is.
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I can teach you and you can teach your own children.
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I don't have to come in and teach your children,
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I can teach you and you teach the children.
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However, I don't care how you do it.
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They need to be educated, they don't need to walk around
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thinking that they're exempt from HIV
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because anybody that's having sex,
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as I said earlier in the video,
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is wide open for HIV.
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So, I don't know, I'm going to continue to fight the fight,
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and maybe one day they'll let me in.
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And I know that a lot of it is God's timing
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and I'm waiting for his timing to be right
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and for him to tell me to go for it again.
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So I'll try again, I'll continue to try.