“Are you HIV positive?” a cheeky—or confused—freshman asked Julie Goswami ’08 of her new t-shirt. Soon the whole campus would realize that either a serious epidemic had flooded Harvard, or there was something else behind the 144 shirts emblazoned with the words “HIV Positive”.
“The shirts originated in South Africa,” explained Tanuj D. Parikh ’09, chair of the South Asian Men’s Collective. “We wanted to bring them here because it addressed the stigma toward HIV victims, and after more than two decades, people are still afraid to talk about it.”
Seven campus organizations, including the South Asian Men’s Collective, helped organize the Step It Up campaign, which includes a talk by Presley Professor of Social Medicine Paul Farmer, a charity dance, and the sale of the much-discussed shirts. “I like them because they don’t say ‘We’re raising awareness for HIV victims,’ but I can understand what they mean,” said George A. Kitovitz ’08.
Others were more critical. “It’s a little over the top. They’re using crazy means to draw attention to an extreme problem. It kind of makes sense, but it’s a little disingenuous,” said Nikhil G. Mathews ’08.
When asked whether he was going to the Step It Up dance in Annenberg Hall, Goran Lazarevski ’09 asked, “Step It Up? What’s that?” But after learning of the party’s connection to the shirts, he said, “Oh, those people! That could be nice, I guess.”
The shirts may have been a more successful way to publicize the event than the screaming legions outside the Science Center. “When I walk around with it on, you can see the reaction in people’s eyes. MTV even came and filmed people wearing them before the dance,” Parikh said. Considering that more than 1,000 people cycled through Annenberg last Saturday night, you might want to add a little controversy to your next fundraiser. It works.
