"Girl, people still wear red ribbons for AIDS? I thought that had been went out of style." — overheard on MARTA this evening

As we all know, the red ribbon is a symbol of support and understanding of people living with HIV/AIDS. The red ribbon simple was created in the spring of 1991 by painter Frank Moore, a member of the New York-based Visual AIDS Artists Caucus. The red ribbon symbol made its momentous public debut later that year at the 45th Annual Tony Awards, where several celebrities (most notably actor Jeremy Irons) donned the ribbon for awareness…and a nice PC fashion accessory. According to the Visual AIDS press release,

"The red ribbon (an inverted 'V' without a bow) will act as a symbol of our sympathy, support and hope for a day without AIDS. All involved with this project hope that by December 1st, World AIDS Day, these ribbons will be worn across the world."

And we've worn it ever since.

Do you remember the huge wave of Afrocentric clothing from 1990 – 1994 with Cross Colours, leather Africa medallions, Public Enemy, BDP and Spike Lee's Malcolm X? Even in my small Alabama hometown, I was seeing Becky Sue Bob's and Jimmy Joe Dean's sporting "No Apartheid" t-shirts and quoting the philosophies of prominent Black leaders like Jesse Jackson and the venerable Martin Luther King, Jr. I'll never forget when I was 11 years old and witnessed a fight in the schoolyard between two young Black males. The principal came and broke it up; one of the young men was tired from the scrap and his black oversized sweatshirt with a screenprinted caricature of Bart Simpson as Malcolm X with the phrase "by any means necessary" coming from his mouth. The principal snatched the shirt off of the kid and held it in front of his face.

"Do you see this? Do you even know who Malcolm X is? You little hoods around here don't care about the struggle — you just want something to make you look fashionable instead of really making a difference."

And some could say that's what people today are doing with the red ribbon. Only these days, the red doesn't stop there. Now we can all go "into the red" with the (PRODUCT)^RED campaign. The scrap of ribbon is now a whole shirt. Or a pair of tennis shoes. Or even an iPod. Some would call it the mass marketing of AIDS. Can you imagine next year's holiday season with a red tree decked out with red ribbons? Or maybe even sending that special loved one whom you know has the disease an HIV/AIDS specific sympathy card?

I'm reminded, in part, of this 2004 article from the Canadian newspaper Eye Weekly, "The red ribbon vanishes":

When annual profits from the ribbons dropped to about $30,000 over the past few years (contrast this with the Remembrance Day poppies — you'll notice news anchors and other celebrities still wear those — which raise about $14 million annually), CANFAR realized that there were more effective ways to use their limited resources and volunteer power.

"For the amount of effort and volunteer hours, we didn't want to use all of our resources for something that wasn't working as well as it could work," Beckett says.

With attention now turned to the spread of HIV/AIDS on the African continent, churches and other organizations are now fundraising by selling beaded pins created by African women, which could also be cutting into red ribbon sales. With such a vast array of colourful ribbons, each representing a different cause (see sidebar), it's not surprising that the popularity of the original red ribbon campaign is waning.

"It's a hard campaign to run," says Shawn Brunemeijer, CANFAR's director of development. "It's an awareness campaign and unfortunately awareness in Canada is slipping because people think that (AIDS) has turned into a disease that's manageable."

Listen to the wrong information and you could think it is manageable. Get the right drugs cocktail from your doctor, exercise regularly and live right, and you too can live with AIDS. Has pop culture, corporate America and capitalism transmogrified the symbol of a movement into more than just a marketable product?

Today is World AIDS Day. More than wearing a ribbon or buying a product, your actions and deeds can do more to help show your support. Take an AIDS test. Or go with a friend and have them take one too. Learn the correct information about the disease and how to prevent it. Let your symbol of the movement live on in your works with and for others.

Stop AIDS. Keep the Promise.

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Once again, the blogger community is joining together to raise awareness about the world wide AIDS epidemic. Please click here to view a list that will be updated throughout the day of individuals raising their united voices.

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Check out past World AIDS Day entries on BlackGayBlogger.com.

World AIDS Day 2005
World AIDS Day 2005: I Wear The Ribbon

World AIDS Day 2004
Link and Think. And Re-Think.
Link and Think. Think This Will Happen?
Link and Think. And Think Of A Better Excuse, Chump.

World AIDS Day 2003
Link and Think. But think first.
Link and Think. And Think Again.
Link and Think. The Links Edition.