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Cheat Sheet

by Kellee Terrell

How—and why—the “down low” became an enduring, race-specific cultural myth of HIV and infidelity
On a 2005 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, best-selling African-American author Terry McMillan confronted her ex-husband, Jonathan Plummer, alleging that he was on the “down low”—a scenario in which men profess to be having monogamous, heterosexual sex while secretly having sex with other men on the side. As Winfrey looked on and the audience applauded, McMillan suggested that if she’d tested HIV positive as a result of his extramarital actions, she “would be in jail right now,” presumably for injuring him. And, indeed, Plummer acknowledged on the program that he had had sex with other men.

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