In the current issue of Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review, there’s an interesting interview with Keith Boykin (sorry, no online version), who argues that the "down low" - i.e. the lifestyle/identification of black men who sleep with other men but who are not gay-identifying - was all media hype and invention. I’m inclined to believe the charge to an extent, and I particularly like his quip that no one thought that Jim McGreevey was on the DL when in fact he was. Still, was there not some grain of truth that the cultural journalism of the New York Times and others picked up and amplified? I don’t know really. Regardless of the genesis of the mythology, though, some people, not only white, have come to believe that the down low is a real thing. Just go to the men-for-men personals at New York Craigslist and do a search for DL. The term clearly has use-value for many.
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