Boykin, a noted author of two previous bestsellers, and Havard alumni who has worked as an advisor to President Clinton explained exactly what women should fear – it’s not the undercover brother.
How has this topic permeated hip hop?
I think hip hop is influential in determining the culture of our times and the culture in masculinity in particular. I have a chapter in the book that dissects the way we construct masculinity in our culture and I think hip hop has an enormous effect on that. I know since the 90’s I’ve seen a lot more black men who are gay or bi-sexual who identify with hip hop variations of masculinity. It affects the way we see ourselves, and we’ve constructed narrow definitions of masculinity, which are fine for people who fit into it but not for people who don’t fit into it. I think hip hop can be influential in saving us, as well as it could be influential in limiting us.
Hip hop is very homophobic in nature, but there seems to be an underlying hyper sexual aspect to it. Why the dual messages?
That’s a really good question. Gay people have a lot more presence in hip hop than influence. There are a lot of people involved in hip hop who are gay and bi-sexual whether they’re an artist or behind the scenes, and a lot of people know about it. But we don’t know how to stand up and exert our power. We do have these messages from a lot of artists that are not helpful, but that is how masculinity is defined. If you’re gay you’re a punk or a bitch.
Look at the rivalry between 50 Cent and The Game, look at the language they used to describe each other. It’s all about the reduction of black masculinity through caricature; we use gay men as the archetype weak figure. In the music version of hip hop, that’s how they get at one another.
Jim McGreevey, the Governor of New Jersey and a married man came out last year but no one referred to it as a down low situation. Why is the down low syndrome only relegated to African Americans?
You took the words right out of my mouth. It’s not just a black thing, when the Governor came out no one said it was just a down low thing. That’s because when white men do it, they just call it what it is and move on. When black men do it, we want to investigate and interrogate it. There’s a double standard, clearly it’s not just a black thing. Black men are easier to marginalize, and it’s easier for the media to see us that way.
People seem to be fixated on the over used term the “Down Low.” Why are we still talking about it?
I don’t think everyone knows that the term has been over used. I think it’s a sexy topic, it comprises of two sexy issues. One you’re talking about black men as predators, deceitful liars who are sneaking around their women’s backs and cheating on them. Two, you’re talking about taboo sexuality, men having sex with men, and that’s a mysterious angle. When you combine those two, you have a really compelling media story that’s easily hyped. So it’s not surprising that people are still talking about it.
One other reason people are talking about it, is because people are out promoting it. J.L. King is out there with his book, he’s even writing another book about it. His ex-wife has a book out now. There are a lot of people out their trying to make money off exploiting women’s fears, and that’s what they’re doing.
Do you think J.L. Kings description of the down low experience in the black community is accurate?
J.L. King gave general description of the down low. He talked about his own experience and he talked about other people’s experience. He went further than saying it was his story, he said that it was the definitive down low experience, and even more that this is the cause of the AIDS epidemic. And what was so troubling about his message is that it was so untrue. There just wasn’t any evidence to back up what he was saying, so that’s what I think was misleading.
J.L. King actually approached you to ghostwrite his book, why didn’t you use that opportunity to help him create something accurate?
Well someone actually suggested that, Phil Wilson the head of the Black AIDS institute in Los Angeles. [Wilson] said there are two ways to look at it, you could write it for him and at least have some sort of positive influence on it, or you could stay away from it, and your reputation won’t be tarred by what he produces.
I had a sense when he approached me that he was only interested in making money, he wasn’t at all interested in educating people or saving women’s lives. It was clear to me that there was no message that I could latch onto. And so much of what he says seems to be inconsistent. How helpful would it be for me to be involved with something that is sending mixed messages? So that’s the reason I felt it wasn’t good to be involved with it.
What did you hope to accomplish with your book?
A few things. I wanted to challenge what people have heard about the down low. Almost everything that we have been told about the down low is untrue. I wanted to demystify some of the mythology behind the down low. It’s not just a black thing, or a gay thing, and it’s not the cause of the AIDS epidemic. The first half of my book is set up to go through that with all of the different points.
But I also wanted to move beyond the down low, and talk about solutions in our community to deal with the AIDS epidemic, homophobia, racism and misogyny in our community. And the third thing that I wanted to do was encourage people to think critically about this thing. We had people coming along and saying all these horrible things about black men with no evidence. And people believed it, so I wanted to provide some evidence to challenge things people were saying.
Some things were just patently false. For instance J.L. King writes in his book the 68% of all new AIDS cases are black women, that’s not true its 18%. And the book says that 50% of all new AIDS cases are black people, which is true actually. But this is the part no one actually figured out: if 50% of all news AIDS cases are black people, how do black women account for 68%, when they are a subset of black people? It’s illogical in its base.
The book is in stores and the message you have is loud and clear, what’s the next step for the community?
The next step is paying attention to the real issues and not the diversionary issues. Obviously we when talk about the down low its important to separate the issue of infidelity from the issue of safe sex. If we are talking about infidelity we should talk about the down low as well as the number of other examples of infidelity in relationships. But if you’re talking about safe sex than the down low is a deadly distraction from the real issues. Because the down low does not cause AIDS. HIV causes AIDS. And every time we send the message that woman should focus on the down low, we mislead them into thinking that men on the down low are the only ones who may be HIV positive. Women get this incentive to become down low detectives and spy on their partners instead of figuring out what they can do to protect themselves. Women are getting the message that as long as your man isn’t on the down low, then you have a free pass to what you want in the bedroom – which is horrible advice. The man could be HIV positive or have other diseases. We have to have a lot more perspective and figure out solutions proactively and constructively.
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