The downlow is an issue that many African Americans are dealing with today; black men are trying to conceal what black women are trying to reveal.The International Committee held a forum last Wednesday, which addressed the concerns facing the downlow.

According to one of the nation’s leading commentators on race and sexual orientation and author of the book “Beyond the Downlow,” Keith Boykin feels as though black women should spend more time practicing abstinence or safe sex, rather than being doubtful about every black male.

Boykin’s justification for this statement was that there is not enough evidence on the downlow because it is on the downlow and gay men are not the leading cause of AIDS in the black community. Boykin, however, did not say that AIDS is not spread by the gay community, and he asked the question about why safe sex and condoms are not being emphasized in prison. Boykin mentioned that the downlow is not just a black thing.

“The downlow demonizes black men as predators and makes it seem as if black females are diseased and unclean,” Boykin said.Boykin also said the book published by J. L. King, “On the Downlow,” was set out to falsely influence people and the author’s commentary about the downlow from a broad perspective was an effort to gain publicity.

“If the KKK wanted to divide the black community, they could not have done a better job than J. L. King’s book,” Boykin said.Many women attending Dillard are concerned with the issue of the downlow. AmiKole Diagne, a sophomore English major from Bronx, New York said, “The problem with the downlow is that you do not who is a fag and who is not, some men are openly gay and other men chill with women during the day and sleep with men at night, and that is a problem.

“Dr. Keith Wismar, a professor of psychology at Dillard said, “It is usually unacceptable in many societies, primarily the black community, for men to be gay due to their religion or other reasons regarding homophobia.”

According to Boykin, “The reality is to accept men on the downlow, but people do not want to accept it, which makes it hard for people on the downlow to admit, because they know their friends would distance themselves, family disown them and church condemn them.” Considering the views of Boykin and Dr. Wismar, in order to accept the downlow, it must first be understood.