hat tip, JD.
“More surprising is that black people have lapped up the Down Low story as much as white people. That’s because, beneath its veneer of media-bestowed respectability, the Down Low is essentially a conspiracy theory. I grew up at a time when the more hysterical among us argued that the KKK manufactured the soft drink Mystic, the government concocted AIDS, and Norplant was a clever attempt at genocide. The most virulent conspiracy theory involved the “Willie Lynch Speech,” a document which allegedly spells out the means and tactics that white slaveholders used to keep their property divided and docile. The speech is a myth, a creation myth, that gives a clear and singular explanation for the plight of black America.
“The Down Low is an equally powerful narrative that also fits well within the larger story of our Great Fall. The basic idea is that before 1968, black people were a noble, harried Christian race, but since then we’ve gone completely Gomorrah. How else to explain that nearly two generations after the Civil Rights movement, blacks still rank dead last in nearly every socioeconomic category of note. The formulas and complex variables of science simply don’t deploy with the same power as good old-fashioned conspiracy.”
TheStateOf . . . The Down Low. I (J) dunno, all “down low” men aren’t in committed relationships, and the conspiracy theory angle seems disengenuous to me. All I know is all I see around Los Angeles, New York, DC and ATL is dudes in pink with flat-front khakis.
