Eloquence and Epitaph: Black Nationalism and the Homophobic Impulse in Responses to the Death of Max Robinson

The AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome)-related death of black network newsanchor Max Robinson is discussed to illuminate the discursive impediments to effective AIDS education in African-American communities. After first examining the discourse of the news media as deployed by Robinson & others to show how it simultaneously invokes & yet effectively suppresses black male sexuality as an element in Robinson's persona & as a factor in his success as newscaster, the operation in contemporary African-American culture of a powerful homophobia that derives from the black cultural nationalism of the 1960s is traced, & homophobia identified as a primary source of many black communities' resistance to discuss AIDS, which is strongly associated with male homosexual activity. Thus it is demonstrated that influential discursive practices in both the dominant news media & African-American communities overlap to suppress discussion of the full range of sexual activity engaged in by blacks, particularly black men, which undermines the efficacy of AIDS educational programs. The discursive practices that have shaped discussion of AIDS thus far must be reformulated to meet the urgent needs of African Americans. Modified AA