African-American males are already dying from criminal homicides at an alarming rate. Now there is another crisis of masculinity in the African-American community.
Seeking new ideas and identities, some young African-American men are practicing a sadistic form of sexual violence. It is called living “on the down low” – men secretly having sex with other men while in sexual relationships with women.
Ramon Johnson wrote in Your Guide to Gay Life, “often these men do not consider themselves gay or bisexual and their female partners are not aware that they have sex with other men, thus the term ‘down low.’”
The term “down low” is not new. Salt n Pepper mentioned it in 1993 in their song “What a Man.” Brian McKnight, TLC and R. Kelly have also made references to the “down low” in some of their recordings.
Being a man on the “down low” means leading a secret life by sleeping with both men and women. These secrets often lead to contracting and spreading sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes and HIV to their loved ones.
The Chicago Tribune recently reported that AIDS is the number one cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 25 and 44. Once again, AIDS is on the rise. More women, more college students and more people over the age of 50 are at greater risk than ever before. It’s really something you need to know about. African-American women represent 68 percent of new HIV cases, and an alarming one out of 160 black women carries the virus, compared to one in 3,000 white women.
Why are some African-American males on the down low? It appears that a number of factors encourage this behavior, such as popular meeting places and the pursuit for a new phase of sensitive manhood. Sometimes it’s hard to imagine how things could change for the better around us when there is such a high level of promiscuity and unhealthy behavior among the African-American male population.
Researchers found the sexual partners of men on the DL are likely to be someone they previously did not know. More often than not, these men will deny that they are bisexual. The thought that they are attracted to both men and women can be embarrassing and frequently leads to misconceptions and stereotypes, and they are afraid of being labeled as gay.
Sexual orientation is an enduring emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction to another person, yet sexual promiscuity is a risky behavior at any age. Apparently programs promoting abstinence, monogamy and safer-sex practices are not working among certain segments of our community and we should focus on intense social activism.
I am not suggesting that men on the down low are the sole cause of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African-American community, but this behavior probably is a major contributor. Most people looking at the trend are searching for ethical evidence, but if they find it, it just might be too late.
I can be reached by fax at (314) 837-3369 or by e-mail at: berhay@swbell.net.