Advertisement

Aids shatters racist delusion

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP

The self-described blonde, white prostitute says primly, 'I don't sleep with blacks'. Her voice sounds slightly bored as it sings down the telephone line from her apartment in the city centre.

Advertisement

'I will do Indians and Chinese, but most of my guys are whites. I won't do anyone black because I don't want to get Aids.'

The woman, who advertises herself as 'blonde stunner' in the classifieds of a local newspaper's 'adult entertainment' section, uses her racial preference as a sales pitch to entice reluctant punters who are worried about contracting the disease running rampant in South Africa.

'You will be safe with me,' she coos.

The young woman's business pitch reflects a widespread belief that HIV and Aids is a problem restricted to the country's majority black population.

Advertisement

For years the minority white population has felt insulated from the Aids epidemic, despite evidence that the disease is spreading among the nation's caucasians faster than any other white population in the world and, if anything, even faster than among black South Africans.

loading
Advertisement