Bradford Pearson

Gay basketball players = HIV awareness?

So I stumbled across this while on a livejournal site yesterday, and it was too good not to share. Since I can’t post the strip in its full size, I’ll transcribe what the comic- which is apparently the smallest game of Shirts vs. Skins I’ve ever seen- reads:

First panel:
Tank-Topped Man: Come on, Tariq, shoot the ball!
Bare-Chested Man: Oh, I got this bruh!

Second panel, with no transition whatsoever:
BCM: Darnell, you mess around with dudes, right?
TTM: Yeah, and…?

Third panel:
BCM: I thought maybe you could school me on what to do…?
TTM: Tariq, are you trying to tell me that you want to date men?

Fourth, and final, glorious panel:
BCM: I’m just tryin’ to kick it with a dude, yo! I ain’t tryin’ to marry one!
BCM: Let’s go talk about this somewhere else…

To Be Continued…

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What jumps out at me- aside from the fact that neither of these guys are wearing shoes with laces-is that the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services (who sponsored the strip) thought that this was the best way to teach gay, African-American men about safe sex.

I imagine the story meeting went something like this:

Boss: “Johnson, we need ideas, damn it!”
Johnson: “Well, black men play basketball right?”
Boss: “You’re a goddamn genius. Put together some story boards! Gold mine!”

Can anyone think of a more blatant stereotype of black men?

You can find the serialized “graphic novel”- presumably the continued tales of Tariq, Darnell, and who ever Tariq wants to sleep with but not marry- here.

And does everyone else think this is an odd marketing plan, or am I on my own?

NOTE: You can click on the strip for the full-size image.

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Posted by Bradford Pearson at 12:48 AM