It Ain't All About the Down Low

“There’s been a lot of talk in the media about the “down low” and African American men,” says Smita Varia, an activist with Advocates for Young Women of Color Leadership Council based in D.C. Sophie Godley agrees, “In some ways it’s good that this issue has been brought to light. But on the other hand ... it makes black women look like helpless victims with no power and black men look like evil liars. It doesn’t really help us at all get where we need to go with this disease.”

“Living on the down low”—a term referring to African-American men that hide their bisexual encounters from unsuspecting female partners and often end up infecting them with HIV—has been getting a great deal of media attention lately.

Yet most stories about the “down low” fail to go beyond the juicy headlines focusing on infidelity and closeted lives in the black communities. “The down low phenomenon has always been there, and it’s been in all communities—not just with African-American men,” says Godley, director of prevention and education at the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts.

The single-dimensional media overlooks the many factors that make African-American women in the U.S. more vulnerable to contracting HIV. The media spotlight also misses the many African-American women, who are working to solve this problem and the lack of resources and education they face in their communities. “You already have the image of being gang bangers, the image of being overly sexual—there are already all of these assumptions and racist things that are said about the black community,” adds Godley.

The “down low” phenomenon appeared in the headlines shortly after a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) based in Atlanta, Ga. The CDC found that AIDS is the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 25-34 and is among the top four causes of death for African-American women between the ages 20-54. In 2003, African-American and Hispanic women together represented only 25 percent of all U.S. women, but accounted for 83 percent of AIDS diagnoses reported.

According to the CDC, there are three major factors that make young women of color—especially African-American women—being more at risk for contracting HIV. They are what the CDC labels sexual inequality, biological vulnerability, and socioeconomic factors.

“Sexual inequality” refers to the reality that many young women date older men—which makes it harder for young women to negotiate condom use. A CDC study of urban high schools across the country found that more than 33 percent of African-American and Hispanic young women had their first sexual encounter with an older man.

Biologically, women are twice as likely as men to contract HIV during vaginal intercourse and if you had an STI (sexually transmitted infection) before, it increases your chances even more. According to the CDC, gonorrhea and syphilis are higher among young women of color ages 15-24.

The socio-economic factors also create challenges for effective education and prevention. One in four African-Americans and one in five Hispanics live in poverty, which often leads to a lack of access to high quality health care and education and higher levels of substance abuse.

Lisa Diane White is a health education and advocacy program coordinator of SisterLove in Atlanta—the first nonprofit in Georgia to address the sexual health of African-American women and HIV prevention. White has seen many African-American men that believe in the conspiracy theory that HIV/AIDS was made by our government.

“When you’ve got a brother that’s talking all powerful and knowledgeable about this theory, and that he’s not going to use a condom because he believes it’s government-made—that’s just one more argument that keeps a woman from knowing her partner’s HIV status, and leaving her more at risk,” said White.