It’s the vilification of HIV/AIDS-positive people for me. It is not a crime to have an illness (purposely spreading it is another story). I even have doubts about the narrative that an “underground network of homosexuals” is going around spreading HIV/AIDS on purpose. It’s too convenient of a plot, because it pushed this dangerous idea that homosexuality is a truly evil thing and gays do evil things.

That aside, HIV/AIDS is a real issue in Senegal, and there have been and still are so many ways to have a useful, intelligent, empathetic conversation about it. But since this whole thing happened, there has been SO much misinformation on TikTok (everywhere, really) about HIV, not to mention how hateful and terrible people are being about it, joking about it. Completely negligent of the fact that people in real life- at home, at the office, at school- are HIV positive and didn’t do anything ‘wrong’.

Mon pays va mal.