On the Down Low: A Journey Into the Lives of "Straight" Black Men Who Sleep with Men

Customer Reviews

Missed The Mark

While I applaud King for thrusting the DL phenomenon into national prominence, I am concerned that the overall message of this book will cause more animosity for gay and bisexual men. The occurance of men who lead straight lives seeking sex with other men is as old as humankind. So King's book revealed very little or failed to break much ground. What really should have been the opportunity for open, positive, and honest dialogue between the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and straight communities was a witch hunt.I found several of the views presented here irresponsible. For example, King's attempts to provide clues as to how one can detect if a man is DL are laughable. There is absolutely no way to tell if a man is bisexual unless he admits it or you catch him in the act. Also King uses certain terms that are downright offensive and demeaning. These viewpoints are perpetuating self hatred and the continuence of homophobia. The culprit is not who one sleeps with....the real enemy is ignorance and hatred. People with attitudes like King's are the ones who are continuing the gay bashing gossiping/jokes at the water cooler and the Adam and Steve sermons from the pulpit. While I am in no way blaming King's book for these these things, I read this book with the hope that the overall message would be one of unconditional acceptance and King missed the mark.

"What A Darn Shame"!!!

I think Mr. J. King's book is part of his evil plot to self-promote himself & turn even more brothas' on to this nasty-germ traveling phenomenon!!! It's such a shame that a large number of our Beautiful, Handsome, Intelligent, Black men are being turned on & schooled about this *straight from hell* trend! God still has a plan for our Black American men....no matter how the devil tries to turn them out & destroy them as a whole! King, on The Oprah talk show said he still doesnt consider himself gay....now if this man doesnt come across as a complete nut-case, I dont know who does! No man can sleep with other men & enjoy it greatly each time & NOT no they're not gay/homosexual!
That's insane! -- The one thing I do hope comes about as a result of this book being released is that MANY of those Down Low black men living in Atlanta Georgia & most of California [as well as other cities/states] will want to be more honest about there sexuality for a change with the growing number of black women testing postitive for HIV because of DL brother's actions!

WHY BASH YOUR BROTHA's

J.L.King, may have meant well with this long an dwordy piece but all he did was badh his own people. He baegan belittling the relationships that gay/bisexual men have with each other in to jsut sexcapades. That is a crime in itself. I never thought I would see the day when one man took the Church's condemnation and made it PC. That hurts alot of people in the process. The Most horrifying thing about the book is that it is being revered for its stereotypes of men. Now he has given homophobia a new weapon against the homosexual community. This book really is hurting rather than healing the SGL community as well as American society in general.