‘Even Me 2.0’ Shines Light on HIV’s Disproportionate Toll on Black Women and Older Adults – BlackPressUSA

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — A decade after its acclaimed debut, the award-winning documentary Even Me returns with a powerful sequel, Even Me 2.0: Unfinished Business. Debuting on Prime, the new film revisits the lives of older African American women living with HIV, an often-overlooked group at the center of a crisis that still grips Black communities across the United States.
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By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
A decade after its acclaimed debut, the award-winning documentary Even Me returns with a powerful sequel, Even Me 2.0: Unfinished Business. Debuting on Prime, the new film revisits the lives of older African American women living with HIV, an often-overlooked group at the center of a crisis that still grips Black communities across the United States.
Created by San Diego State University researcher and filmmaker Dr. Megan Ebor, Even Me 2.0 follows a suspenseful journey to reconnect with the original cast, capturing the emotional and, at times, heartbreaking outcomes of their stories. The film provides a rare longitudinal lens into the evolving HIV epidemic and confronts the persistent stigma and systemic inequities that continue to shape the lives of Black women aging with HIV. “Older adults are often left out of these conversations, leading to misinformation and a lack of support or treatment,” Ebor said in a recent interview. “By openly talking about sexual health, we encourage testing, prevention, and support for people living with HIV, regardless of age.”
The timing of the film’s release coincides with a troubling reality highlighted by the latest data from AIDSVu, a leading public resource that visualizes HIV-related data to promote informed public health decisions. Although Black Americans comprise just 12% of the U.S. population, they accounted for 38% of new HIV diagnoses and 39% of people living with HIV (PLWH) in 2022. Black men and women had the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses among all racial and ethnic groups in 2022. For youth aged 13–24, Black Americans made up half of all new HIV diagnoses, far outpacing other demographics. Despite these alarming figures, Black individuals represented only 14% of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) users in 2023, pointing to a dangerous gap in prevention access.
The problem goes beyond treatment access. According to AIDSVu data, Black people living with HIV report the highest levels of stigma and the lowest rates of viral suppression. In 2022, 22% of Black PLWH in the U.S. also reported unstable housing or homelessness—the highest rate among all races and ethnicities. Dr. Ebor’s research explores how these structural and social barriers intersect with age, race, and gender. Through her film and faith-based partnerships, she seeks to advance HIV education and eliminate stigma. She described her work as a departure from the top-down approach, instead elevating the voices of those directly impacted. “This approach is about amplifying lived experience to promote health and wellness within their communities,” she said.
The return of Even Me comes as advocates and researchers urge a renewed national focus on Black communities in the HIV response. Earlier this year, during National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, AIDSVu Principal Scientist and Emory University Professor Patrick Sullivan stressed the need to remain focused. “Our role is to make sure there’s a transparent view, and to just keep shining that light,” Sullivan remarked. Even Me 2.0 aims to do just that. Through raw storytelling and intimate reconnections, the film reframes public health dialogue and reminds viewers that HIV remains a pressing—and preventable—crisis in Black America.
FBI Report Contradicts Mainstream Media Claims of Crime Decline
A Little About Me: I’m the co-author of Blind Faith: The Miraculous Journey of Lula Hardaway and her son, Stevie Wonder (Simon & Schuster) and Michael Jackson: The Man Behind The Mask, An Insider’s Account of the King of Pop (Select Books Publishing, Inc.) My work can often be found in the Washington Informer, Baltimore Times, Philadelphia Tribune, Pocono Record, the New York Post, and Black Press USA.
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BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — While headlines from CBS News and other outlets claim that crime dropped “in every category” in 2024, a closer examination of the FBI’s newly released data shows that such summaries exclude key categories of criminal activity that remain serious or are getting worse.
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By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent
While headlines from CBS News and other outlets claim that crime dropped “in every category” in 2024, a closer examination of the FBI’s newly released data shows that such summaries exclude key categories of criminal activity that remain serious or are getting worse.
The FBI’s 2024 Uniform Crime Report (UCR) shows that the violent crime rate—which includes murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault—declined by 4.5% from the previous year. Property crime rates also fell by 8.1%, including decreases in burglary, larceny-theft, and motor vehicle theft. However, a review of the complete FBI datasets reveals that the total number of murders increased, with 16,935 people killed in 2024, up from the previous year. This happened even as the murder rate per 100,000 people dropped from 5.7 to 5.0, reflecting population growth rather than fewer killings. The FBI also reported 40,995 incidents of cargo theft in 2024, including large volumes of merchandise stolen from commercial vehicles and storage facilities. These cases are not included in the general property crime totals cited in most news coverage.
In addition, 3,725 human trafficking offenses were reported nationwide. While this number remained relatively unchanged from recent years, the FBI and advocates routinely note that trafficking is underreported and difficult to track due to the nature of the crime. More than 8,000 hate crime incidents were reported in 2024. The data show that most known offenders were white. Black individuals, Jewish communities, LGBTQ+ people, and Asian Americans were among the most targeted groups. Hate crimes are reported through a separate FBI system and were not referenced in CBS’s coverage. The FBI also published data showing that 24 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line of duty last year. Thousands of additional assaults on officers were reported, including those involving firearms and knives. The most common hours for assaults were during evening shifts. During a press briefing on the data release, when asked by CBS News why the violent crime rate had declined, an FBI official responded, “It’s difficult, if not impossible, for us to say why, and each reporting agency would have a different reason why.”
That level of caution comes at a time when Trump removed Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner William Beach after the agency released a jobs report that reportedly displeased the White House. The firing has raised questions about the independence of federal agencies and the potential political risks of reporting inconvenient data. While it is factually correct that the rate of reported violent and property crimes decreased in 2024, omitting the raw totals—such as the rise in murders—and failing to account for categories like hate crimes, human trafficking, and cargo theft creates an incomplete public understanding of crime in the United States. The FBI data shows that several serious threats remain. Focusing solely on year-over-year percentage declines without context or complete transparency can mislead the public and obscure the risks that many communities continue to face.
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