William "Reds" Brawner, fast times at Howard U

William Brawner, HIV+ and an advocate for awareness

Parents: When you send your kids off to college, do you tell them not to go to ice cream parties?  Do you tell them to stay away from certain guys and to not make sex tapes?  Have you sat them down to say, watch out for guys or girls who lure you into compromising situations?



Probably not.  You probably should.  People don't tell you about the real deal of what happens on and around college campuses.  Date rapes are a reality.  Girls have sex with guys in filthy bathrooms.

Alcoholic beverages and drugs are passed around like Halloween tricks and treats.  But not everyone is doing it...and that is okay.

If you send your child away unprepared for the realities of the situation, you and he/she may be in for a world of hurt.  God, discipline, self-esteem, and identity are key to surviving the darker side of college life. That's just my opinion.

Photo from article

Why do I say all of this? Well a young lady posted a link to an article about William "Reds" Brawner who attended Howard University at some point in the early 2000s.  (Read the article here.)  Reds was a ladies man and he got it in on campus.  Apparently he did an article with Essence Magazine in 2006 about being HIV positive and having unprotected sex on Howard's campus.  In the article he says he eventually contacted all of the women he had been with, and none had tested positive. (Source: Essence).  What does this mean? He was exposing several women to a disease that could plague them for life.

The stories on the internet are all vague, some rosy, some perplexing.  The truth is he knew he had HIV since he was five years old.  When he was a toddler  he was burned in a hot bath, and had to have skin grafts and blood transfusions.  The blood transfusion was infected with the virus.  (Source: Philadelphia Weekly)

So as a young adult, he went to Howard University knowing he had the disease and callously exposing the young ladies he interacted with to possible infection. (You can read about why in one of the articles. His ex-girlfriend allegedly told the University of his illness and he was upset by it...) But that's the thing about young folks.  They are self-centered and selfish.  Can you get angry at him for behaving in the way he did?  I mean he did no more than what other students were doing.  No more than what many do before they even get to school.  He just happened to have HIV.

The difference between him and others, is that he knew he had it, that does not mean he was the only one with it.

I remember when I got to college a lot of the older girls warned us about who not to deal with, how to avoid getting caught up in the CNN (Carolina Negro Network), to stay away from the athletes and run from the frat boys.  One of the same young ladies, who told us that, ended up in the rumor mill by the end of her tenure at the University for some really illicit behavior.

That's the crazy thing about college...rumors run rampant on college campuses.  But common sense is in short supply.  Most folks are book smart, with no life smarts whatsoever.  College can be the most amazingly dangerous place on earth.  A whole lot of freedom with a little bit of good judgment can be a recipe for disaster or a catapult to greatness.