Mister Cee and the Myth of the Down-Low Bogeyman
Radio personality Mister Cee’s recent arrest has relaunched the popular conversation about the down low. But it’s time to view the down-low brother for what he is: an urban exaggeration.
- By: Mason Jamal | Posted: April 7, 2011 at 1:52 PM
Years ago, a rumor circulated that the recipes of a popular restaurant chain contained a secret birth control agent that sterilized black men. The KKK was alleged to have masterminded the operation. They named the restaurant Church’s, after the most revered institution in the black community, and they specialized in fried chicken.
Even as speculation about the nefarious plot caught fire like a burning cross, black men continued to eat the diabolically delicious chicken. Yet the African-American birthrate stayed right on schedule. So much for any truth to the sperm-killing three-piece dinners. While we’re at it, let’s go ahead and also debunk any lingering conspiracy theories about syphilis-injected buttery biscuits.
The point? Sometimes misinformation will auto-correct in the public mind, as with the myth of the racist chicken proprietors. But sometimes it won’t. Our fascination with the down-low brother is a prime example. To dismiss him as an urban legend would be to refute the facts of his existence, but it’s certainly reasonable and, frankly, responsible to relegate him to an urban exaggeration.
The predicament in which DJ Mister Cee of New York’s Hot 97 has recently found himself embroiled certainly doesn’t help matters. The popular DJ’s arrest last week for public lewdness involving the alleged receipt of oral stimulation from a male practitioner in his car has been red meat ever since for gossip sites and rival New York radio personalities. Even if the tawdry allegations are true, the reaction to it seems to say more about us than it says about him.
Stories like his always seem to dredge up discussions about the down low and all the misplaced blame for the health and relationship woes of black women, whose relationships with black men have been complicated by the down-low brother. They despise the idea of being betrayed by him and fear the consequences of his recklessness and deceit. Yet many black women are perversely entertained by his story from afar.
Oprah invites a down-low brother over for coffee, candor and cameras. He sits on her couch and dishes on the double life that some of his bisexual brethren, of all races, lead. His books are New York Times best-sellers. He confesses and confides. He explains and exploits his story simultaneously.
Black women are part horrified, part hypnotized. He’s their tour guide to the underworld, where seemingly straight men go bump in the night. But he’s something else, too, even though he may not mean to be. He’s a public disservice announcement.
By now, we’ve all heard the reports. Black women disproportionately make up the fastest-rising demographic of new HIV cases. Their rate of infection is nearly 15 times that of their white counterparts. To call it alarming is an understatement. But is the relatively small percentage of bisexual black men the reason for the high rates?
