Thoughts on Nushawn Williams (Neal Reading)

After reading the story of Nushawn Williams, a black man in the 90s who infected 13 young women with HIV in the sheltered town of Jamestown, New York, it reminded me of a Law and Order episode I had seen a few years ago. Neal talked about the media reaction to the case, and hypothesized that if it had been a white man who infected these women, the press would have painted him in slightly more positive light. He quotes Saundra Smokes from USA Today saying: "if Williams, who is African American, were accused of infecting African-American teen age girls from urban America rather than white girls from a small, rural town, the story simply would not have been as prominent...And if Williams were white, he might not be portrayed as a crazed, HIV-positive 'predator' purposely preying on innocent, troubled young girls, as much as a troubled young man himself." I agree with the first part of this statement, as frustrating as it may be, but the last part I am not in as much agreement with. I do not think that if Williams had been white he would have been portrayed as simply a "troubled" young man. He infected 13 girls with HIV, most of them after he had found out that he had the disease. This is a sinister thing, and the media would not portray this in a positive light.

I remember watching an episode of Law and Order in which a man was knowingly infecting people with HIV. He was white, and the entire cast and the press that jumped on the story was disgusted with him. He was portrayed as sinister and cunning, a slippery man who knew his way around the justice system. Yet despite this people still saw him for what he was: a criminal. I do understand that the Williams case was over 15 years ago and this episode of Law and Order was probably made within the last 5 years, but I find it very hard to believe that people would treat a white man infecting people with HIV versus and black man infecting people with HIV extremely differently.

-Elle Callahan