Commentary
Cashing in on the down low?

ByAlena Scarver
NLGJA Reporter Staff Writer

In the mid-1990s, R & B artist R. Kelly topped the charts with his hit single, “Keep It on the Down Low,” a song about a man and woman carrying on an illicit sexual affair behind the back of a trusting and loving man.

Today, the “down low” has taken a totally different connotation in reference to keeping affairs private. Today, the media is citing the “down low” as a factor in the monstrous rise of HIV/AIDS among African American women in the United States.

The “down low” refers to African American men who engage in sexual activity with other men who say they are heterosexual. These men may also be in committed relationships with women whom are clueless to their men’s sexual behavior.

Research by organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control reports that although more than 50 percent of African American women who have HIV/AIDS contracted it through heterosexual sex, it has not been proven that the men they contracted it from were on the down low.

Why exactly are we pointing the finger at one another? What made people believe this accusation? Could it be because African Americans are rarely portrayed in the gay press and frequently reported on a negative light in the mainstream media?

Television shows, newspapers and writers have cashed in on the down-low phenomenon. “Oprah,” “Law & Order: SVU,” J.L. King, Keith Boykin, the New York Times and USA Today have found content in the down low.

Even as HIV/AIDS cases begin to decrease, as reported by the CDC, African Americans are irate and pouring out their frustration in many ways. One of Peter Jennings’s last reports was about AIDS in black America. His primetime special spent only 10 minutes on statistical information before diving off into the down low.

Two group discussions, one by men and one by women, dissected how down-low men and HIV/AIDS have devastated the African American community. The men seemed to be ashamed as they talked about how they didn’t disclose their sexual orientation because they felt obligated to “be a man.”

Being a man in the African American community, they said, is to be hyper-masculine and provide for your family.   

The women, though irate, were slightly confused about how the down low has had such a horrible impact. Some of the women placed sole blame on men who are on the down low as the reason for the rise in HIV/AIDS among African American women.
This is appalling and unfair to African American men and women. If we were more accepting toward homosexuality, we wouldn’t feel so tempted to hide what we should be open and free to do. It is also unfair and preposterous to blame African American men for having unprotected sex, when women should just as responsible to protect themselves during sexual activity.

As an African American woman, I say that we need to be more responsible before engaging in sexual activity. It is imperative to talk about our sexual history and get tested often. To pretend that this disease will just go away is absurd. We must stand up and take responsibility. It is the only way to save our lives from this pandemic.