Carrie Devorah/WENN.com

From Essence

Today as we observe National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, let us consider the statistics surrounding women and the disease.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, women make up 24 percent of HIV diagnoses among adults in America. The risks are even greater for African-American women—with one in every 32 women being diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime. Statistics further state that 85 percent of African-American women with HIV received it through high-risk sex.

ESSENCE.com caught up with NWGHAAD ambassador Cookie Johnson, wife of famed basketball player Magic Johnson, to find out how she is helping spread the message of awareness through social media and how women can keep themselves safe.

On how she’s working to get word out that women should be tested:

We’re trying to reach them where they live, which is basically through Twitter and Facebook. Everyone needs to talk about this. Part of the problem is, when my husband made his announcement back in 1991, people were dying. It was a new disease. People weren’t familiar with it. People were dying at alarming rates. Now, with the medications they have, people are still getting the disease at high rates, but they’re not dying like they used to. I wonder if that’s why people aren’t afraid of it anymore. I think we really need to bring attention to the fact that there are still huge numbers—especially women and girls—who are getting this disease.

How her marriage changed since Magic made his HIV announcement in 1991:

It actually got stronger. When you’re faced with a tragedy like that, you either do one of two things. You either band together and become a close-knit unit or you completely fall apart and go your separate ways. It’s a lot to handle. We were married a month when it happened. It was very difficult. Everything was new. I found out I was pregnant that month. I wanted to do everything possible to keep it together and fight for it. My first instinct was to go to God and get everything from Him and number two, I was going to fight for my family.

Be sure to read what other advice Cookie has for women and also when she started talking to her children about sex over on Essence.

Do you get tested on a regular basis?

Will.i.am and Johan Jervoe, VP of sales and marketing at Intel. Photo by Jon Furniss/Invision for Intel/AP Images

BlackBerry continues to spiral into the abyss of electronics past. Desperate to escape the Narnia of cassette tapes and floppy disks that exists in the back of our closets, the wireless devices company turned to one woman… Alicia Keys? News of the pop singer’s new gig as creative director of the company formerly know as RIM was met with head scratches and punchlines.

It’s not that we don’t want to see Alicia be great, despite her refusal to let “Girl on Fire” die. This announcement just doesn’t seem as special, or make as much sense, as the company’s press release would like us to believe.

Brands’ work with celebrities used to be simpler. They cut the check; the famous person holds their product and speaks their praises. Now brands don’t just want a campaign, they want to give the celeb an office too. Brand partnerships are all the rage. Celebs are getting titles business school graduates would kill for like “chief creative officer” and “chief innovator.”

How Did We Get Here?

Ad Age has an idea of why companies are so keen to jump on a trend that’s already feeling overdone:

Styling celebrities as ambassadors is an attempt to position the tie-up as more authentic at a time when consumers have become more cynical about endorsements. “There’s a greater authenticity that comes with having a celebrity influencing the business so that it’s not just a face on the brand. … Everyone knows what a brand endorsement is. You can pay a celebrity to say anything.

Some companies get it right. Budweiser’s partnership with Jay-Z seemed odd at first, but who better to breathe new life into the brand’s then-defunct music festival than the reigning king of mainstream hip hop? P. Diddy’s work with Ciroc was a more obvious pairing. His playboy lifestyle legitimized the liquor brand.

When Right Goes Wrong

How can music producer Will.i.am really innovate in the multinational semiconductor chip market for Intel? Lady Gaga is stylish, but Polaroid may have benefited more from working with someone who creates amazing images rather than inspires them. And what about the king of this trend, Key’s husband Swizz Beatz? What have Monster, Lotus, Reebok, and Mega-Upload gained from his involvement?

If companies are going to spend the money to hire celebrities, they should treat them like any other applicant and make sure they possess relevant experience that adds value to the brand. Customers are savvy enough to see the motives behind these partnerships. Just like a desperate girl in the club, businesses resorting to shallow tactics in their thirst for the limelight will just turn people off.

Hype should be the side effect of your decisions, not the goal. Providing a genuinely valuable service or product is still the key success. No one cares who the creative director is as long as the product’s good. If the product’s good, and the creative director happens to be a pop culture icon, well that’s hype worth believing in.

—

C. Cleveland is a freelance writer and content strategist in New York City, perfecting living the fierce life at The Red Read. She is at your service on Twitter (@CleveInTheCity) and Facebook (/MyReadIsRed). 

Since the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 – the document that expresses the want, will, and hopes of the people – the country’s political system has reflected a disproportionately low number of women. Black females are even scarcer. However, some black women have been trailblazers in the political arena, shaping history and leaving a legacy that cannot be erased.

Patricia Roberts Harris

Patricia Roberts Harris broke several racial and gender barriers throughout her distinguished political career. In 1965, she became the first black female ambassador when President Lyndon Johnson appointed her as U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg. Two years later, she returned to her alma mater, Howard University, where she became the law school dean, making her the first black female law school dean in the country. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed Harris to serve in his cabinet as secretary of housing and urban development. She was the first black female in a presidential cabinet.

(AJC) — Much has been written about Andrew Young — preacher, top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., former congressman, U.N. ambassador and a former Atlanta mayor.  But his latest, best-selling book, “Walk in My Shoes: Conversations Between a Civil Rights Legend and His Godson on the Journey Ahead” (Palgrave MacMillan, 256 pages), offers a disarmingly unvarnished look at the man, warts and all. Written with Kabir Sehgal, Young’s 27-year-old investment banker godson whose relationship with “Uncle Andy” stems two decades, Young, now 78, offers advice and meditations on everything from the civil rights movement and today’s politics to finance and the importance of marrying the right person.

Read More…