On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of 'Straight' Black Men Who Sleep with Men

Amazon.com

The closer a secret is kept, the more powerful the impact once it is finally revealed. Such is the case with author and activist J.L. King's intriguing look at the lives and lifestyles of black men who sleep with other men but do not consider themselves to be gay. These men live "on the down low," the "DL" for short, and their sexual activities have gained significant notice as the rate of HIV/AIDS infection in black women has skyrocketed, with the vast majority of cases coming from heterosexual sex. King is a veteran of the DL himself and his book serves partly as a social and psychological survey of the other men he has surveyed and partly as highly candid memoir. King was well regarded in his community, popular at his church, successful in his career, and married to a woman who had no idea that his secret life existed. But when she caught him in a lie and with another man, the marriage collapsed and King's long and painful path to self-awareness began. King cites the negative image many socially conservative black men have of homosexuality as an obstacle to those men being honest with their partners and themselves about who they are. Among the more intriguing elements of On the Down Low are the peculiar approaches men on the DL have to the sexual act, seeking a strictly physical sexual relationship with their secret male partners while remaining in more traditional arrangements with women. Whether this discrepancy is a product of scrupulously guarded secrecy and shame or the natural preference of an understudied sexual identity is one of the numerous questions raised by this book. Though the infection statistics make the DL a huge public health issue, King is neither a sociologist nor a medical professional. And while a more clinical look at this issue would be welcome, King accomplished what he set out to do: provide light and insight into a world that so many have worked so hard to keep in the shadows. --John Moe

Book Description

A bold exposé of the controversial secret that has potentially dire consequences in many African American communities
Delivering the first frank and thorough investigation of life “on the down low” (the DL), J. L. King exposes a closeted culture of sex between black men who lead “straight” lives. King explores his own past as a DL man, and the path that led him to let go of the lies and bring forth a message that can promote emotional healing and open discussions about relationships, sex, sexuality, and health in the black community.
Providing a long-overdue wake-up call, J. L. King bravely puts the spotlight on a topic that has until now remained dangerously taboo. Drawn from hundreds of interviews, statistics, and the author’s firsthand knowledge of DL behavior, On the Down Low reveals the warning signs African American women need to know. King also discusses the potential health consequences of having unprotected sex, as African American women represent an alarming 64 percent of new HIV infections. Volatile yet vital, On the Down Low is sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.
“A survey by the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta found that nearly a quarter of black HIV-positive men who had sex with men consider themselves heterosexual.”
—Essence

Customer Reviews:

EYE OPENER .......2007-09-30

I don't condone this lifestyle, but it is still going to exist, rather I like it or not. I am a happily married woman, but God forbid if something happens to my husband and I have to go back out here on the dating scene again. Thanks to J.L Kings book I will not be so easy to fall for men without investigating them first and picking up on signs. Even if I never have to worry about dating again , I can defintely educate my kids (both girls) about this topic. Don't try to keep topics like this from your kids thinking it wont affect them, because better you tell them, than they find out in a negative way and end up with Aids!

all you closet fags should read this.......2007-09-18

my dad was bisexual so I was hip to this lifestyle from the time I was born so I can relate to this yeah this lifestyle has been around for centuries some of the greatest men in history and literature are homo or bi such as hercules, julius caesar, alexander the great, king herod, pharaoh, achilles, zeus, elton john, david bowie yes homosexuality runs deep lots of entetatiners are on the downlow we know mase is bi so is puffy, missy elliot, da brat, beyonce, camron, kanye west, and plenty others tyra banks and plenty more don't worry everything will come out in the light already thwere are signs that these entertainers are closet homo's.

The Urban Book Source.......2007-08-13

J.L. King hit the head on the nail with his freshman novel. Although down low brothers is nothing new to our community, they have never been talked about in as open a manner as this. On the Down Low lets you crawl into the life of a creeping man and witness the lies, deception and risk that are involved with such a lifestyle. In a deeply rooted homophobic community, many will shun this book. I applaud Mr. King's efforts. With HIV and AIDS running rampant in our community and DL brothers playing a role in an outrageous rate of infection for young black women, I think this book is more than worth the read. Although this text is heavily based on Mr. Kings own experience and some have complained about the quality of writing, I say give this book a chance. Don't focus on the writing, focus on the facts!

1. What did you like best about this book?
I liked that the author took a risk and exposed a topic that was rarely discussed in the open before this book.

2. What did you dislike about this book?
I didn't like that the main basis of this book surrounded the author's personal life. I feel that left air for the material to be biased and questionable.

3. How can the author improve this book?
I think Mr. King should try to tighten and reign in his writing style.

Unsure of Message He's Giving.......2007-07-17

I liked the book. I'm a guy and I was interested in knowing more about being on the DL. But I don't know exactly what the message J.L. King was trying to give. He didn't tell men NOT to be on the DL, he did warn females about them. I guess he just was the messenger. I don't think it will change any black male from having sex with another man if he wants to. It's not going to bring honesty. I can't imagine any male confessing prior to or before doing this. All women cannot insist that their men put on a condom before sex. So-things will probably remain the same. Bottom line???.... Know your partner and be prepared to accept the consequence if you come up HIV+. When I was young they called VD "the gift that keeps on giving", but AIDS is not a gift. We need better morals but people don't seem to want that either.

On the Down Low.......2007-05-14

This was a very, very good read. It is not scary it is Real.

Managerial Economics: Analysis, Problems, Cases
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Possibly the worst economics textbook ever...

A Bad Textbook

Worst Economics Book Ever...

Hard to understand; Worst Economics textbook ever

Managerial Economics: Analysis, Problems, Cases
Lila J. Truett , and Dale B. Truett
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471444669

Book Description

Truett and Truett's Eighth Edition shows how to use economic analysis to solve problems and make effective decisions in the complex world of business. The highly successful problem-solving approach, clear and accurate presentation of economic theory, and outstanding cases combine to make the best presentation of managerial economics yet.
* Walks readers step by step through specific types of problems, including elasticity calculations, cost minimization, and profit maximization.
* Shows how real-world firms have addressed issues discussed in the book.
* Emphasizes the global aspects of managerial economics and its application in the international marketplace.

Customer Reviews:

Possibly the worst economics textbook ever..........2007-09-25

This text manages to incorporate incomprehensible examples, incorrect answers to the problem sets, and overly complex explanations into a mere 768 pages. I've resorted to Google searches on key macroeconomic terms to get through this course. If I could give it no stars, I would. In a word - awful.

A Bad Textbook.......2007-07-16

I am currently taking a MBA class and this text book is being used. In just a few weeks I find this worst textbook I have ever used. The explanations to concepts are unclear. There are very few examples utilizing the concepts. Many of the answers to problems are incorrect to the point our teacher list the errors when assigning the homework. The study guide is of no help since it does not even explain how to do the problems. There has to be some other text out there that is better than this one.

Worst Economics Book Ever..........2006-07-08

I personally had the honor to take Professor Dale Truett's class in managerial economics. Although Dr. Truett knows far more than the average scholar of economics, it is best he sticks to the real thing, rather than trying to write a book about it. It is one of the hardest texts I have ever had to read...

Hard to understand; Worst Economics textbook ever.......2004-12-31

I teach college-level economics and this is the hardest textbook for students to understand. Most of my students do not like this textbook at all. It's explanations are very complex and the graphs are worse. Do not buy this textbook! There are so many more Economic textbooks on the market that are better than this one.

Managerial Economics: Test Bank, Analysis, Problems, Cases - 7e - 6th Edition (Test Bank Analysis - Problems - Cases - Seventh Edition)

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Manufacturer: South Western College Publishing
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Study Guide to Accompany Managerial Economics: Analysis, Problems, Cases

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Study Guide to Accompany Managerial Economics: Analysis, Problems, Cases
Lila J. Truett , and Dale B. Truett
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
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Great American Gospel for Guitar (Easy Guitar with Notes & Tab)
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Great American Gospel for Guitar (Easy Guitar with Notes & Tab)

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Customer Reviews:

Bad research.......2001-04-09

In regard of the european Soap Operas the author has done some really bad research. For better information you should prefer Hugh O'Donnell's "Good Times, Bad Times - Soap Operas and Society in Western Europe".

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Students and others interested in radio history will be intrigued by this fast-paced biography of Gordon McLendon's career in the radio industry, touching also on his work in motion pictures and involvement in Texas politics. Following a glimpse into his childhood, education, and military career, Ronald Garay describes McLendon's station ownership and management in Palestine, Texas; the development of a major network, the Liberty Broadcasting System; his live and recreated baseball and football programs; and his skirmishes with the major league baseball establishment. Much attention is given to how McLendon "re-invented" radio and competed with television and print media through his Top 40 music hits, disc jockey programming, and the use of local news. Important concerns regarding station "trafficking," editorializing, and public interests are considered as well in this extraordinary book.

Customer Reviews:

Don't touch that dial - don't miss this book.......1999-02-06

Commercial radio was more than entertainment for kids growing up in the '50s, '60s & '70s. It was a lifeline to everything cool - a chance for kids living "in the sticks" to keep up to date on what was hot and what was not. Before Cousin Brucie, Wolfman Jack & John "Records" Landecker, there was Gordon McLendon. His claim to fame was re-creating sporting events, in many cases, making games more exciting than the real thing. McLendon was lucky and good. His was a simple formula long before broadcasters thought in such terms. He believed in the total package of music, personality and promotion (not necessarily in that order). Mr. Garay does an amazing job of retracing "The Old Scotsman's" impact on the industry good and bad (like the All Want-Ad format). McLendon was one of the most influential people in radio at a time when it was making the transition from true "broad"casting in to the early stages of what's known as "narrow"casting. Sadly, there are few books devoted to radio's pioneers. Garay's work, which comes across as a labor of love, is the standard for which all other broadcast history books should strive to attain.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent approach that will work.......2004-06-22

This book is the aggregation of Mr. Reifer's extensive experience in software management and economics of reuse. His earlier books, "Practical Software Reuse" (ISBN 0471578533), and "Software Management" (ISBN 0769511007) evidence his experience, and probably account for the realistic approach he takes in this book.

Despite his technical background he takes a business-focused approach early in this book by explaining the difference between business and technical cases. Too many technical managers confuse the two, and this plus the other material in Chapter 1 explaining the fundamentals of business cases will set you on the right course.

Chapter 2 is the essence of this book, with advice on relating goals to metrics (using the Goal/Question/Metric technique), and the development and alignment of business cases to development life cycles. This is followed by two excellent chapters covering principles, rules, and analysis tools, and strategies. Much of this material is standard fare, but Mr. Reifer's clear explanations are better than most books that cover this material.

The second part of the book employs case studies that lead you through the development of a business case using principles, concepts and techniques given in the first part of the book. These reinforce part one of the book, as well as provide clear examples of business cases that work, and the process with which to develop them - including challenges, how assumptions were derived, and other nuances of which you should be aware.

The final part of the book is a single chapter on overcoming major barriers, and the sage advice is well worth heeding.

Overall, this is one of the best books on business case development because it is business-oriented, has an approach that is financially and tactically sound, and is written for technical-oriented managers in their own language.

The bean-counter skills needed to get a project funded.......2002-12-29

This is not a book for software developers or managers who work in a small shop where there is focused development, little formal bureaucracy and a great deal of camaraderie. It is written for the person with responsibility in a large organization who has an idea for a major new project and needs to get it approved. Essentially, it tells you how to survive and thrive in a large organization that builds software.
The advice is fairly simple but quite accurate. Use numbers in your presentation that can be justified and are consistent with any previous numbers that relate to the project. Have solid data concerning the expected return-on-investment (ROI) from the project as well as any additional costs that may not be outwardly obvious. Quite accurately, the author is emphatic about the principles of present and future value. So much so that appendix B is just a set of basic compound interest tables. This is the most important advice that anyone in a large organization with a business case to plead can ever receive.
A lesser, but still critical point is that you must have a manager to champion your proposal through the managerial hierarchy. That champion must also know the expected ROI from the project very well, as upper echelons will consider a lack of knowledge on the part of the champion to reflect a lack of interest. Another point to reckon with is that if you receive the budgetary increase, it most likely means that someone else in your organization had theirs cut. Nasty, but also the way things are.
Finally, the author takes you through a case study as to when you should acquire a company rather than build a new internal division from scratch. His analysis of what to examine and consider significant is a solid strategy for determining which is the better option.
This is a book that really has two audiences, those who are lower level managers in large organizations with an idea for a new project and those who are starting a company and need to convince the people with the money to open their wallets. For them, it is priceless, but for all others it is difficult to see where they will find it of value.

Much-needed insights.......2002-04-14

Making the Software Business Case: Improvement by the Numbers covers an area too few software engineers have any exposure to: financial modeling and business analysis, as it relates to the IT domain. Reifer's concise (300 page) book provides a broad overview of how the IT area appears from the business side, including critical material on how to frame technical proposals in business terms.

Amongst the many nuggets to be found in this book are:

· useful tips on where money can be found
· good insights into the politics of proposals and budgeting
· getting middle management buy-in
· countering executive challenges
· successful management of cross-project initiative dynamics
· software capitalization/depreciation
· Discussion of reuse from a cost avoidance perspective.

This book is not only good in terms of its material, it is also an eminently readable book in terms of style. Reifer elaborates his argument through the clever use of case studies that provide human interest and momentum to otherwise dry material. These case studies include:

· A defense contracting firm implementing software process improvement
· A public utility replacing an outdated mainframe-based transactional system with modern client-server technology
· An industrial controls firm suffering from moribund products
· A firm seeking to Internet-enable its internal systems

Reifert places strong emphasis on "making your numbers believable." He argues that this believability must address these nontechnical considerations:
· Cash flow
· Cost basis
· Cost/benefit
· Estimate fidelity
· Present value
· Profit and loss
· Risks
· Source of funds
· Tax implications

He does an admirable job in placing these concepts in context, and providing a clear overview of each.
The utility case study demonstrates the importance of understanding the overall financial dynamics affecting one's enterprise. For example, the differences between capital and expense budgets can be key in determining whether to purchase or lease equipment. As Reifert elaborates in the utility scenario, "Because this has been a profitable year, an increase in expenses [i.e. leasing as opposed to purchase capital expenditures] could have a profound positive tax consequence." The book has many examples of this type of valuable, integrated business insight.

Reifer has much sound general IT management advice mixed in with his financial message. A recurring theme through many of the discussions is the need for an executive sponsor, to provide political cover and tactical advice in forwarding the business case.

He also urges the reader to frame benefits in terms of cost avoidance rather than cost reduction-promising cost reductions often lead to the question, "OK, then who are we going to let go?" Not a good way to win friends.

I found his observations on the subject of central process quality assurance groups interesting:

"Reinventing staff organizations such as process and quality assurance groups is a good idea. Engineers assigned to such staff groups get stale once they've put in more than three years of service. Being in an audit and support role, they forget how hard it is to develop and deliver quality products under extreme deadline pressures." (p 137). The book displays a continual awareness of the need to balance these contending issues of cost, schedule, and quality.

The case study based on the industrial controls firm has an explicit architectural theme. This is an especially compelling discussion; software engineers are well aware how critical architectural decisions are, and how often they are compromised in the rush to write code. The discussion demonstrates how to make the case for architecture and include it in an overall work breakdown structure. Reifert is exceptionally creative in his case study creation, taking the opportunity to demonstrate hidden agendas, the pitfalls of contractor estimates, and developing a good working relationship with high-level consultants.

The book provides a solid summary of software estimation. There are whole books written on this subject, so the chapter is necessarily at a high level (although it does dive into some detail on the COCOMO II model in particular). However, it provides a valuable discussion of aspects of high-level IT budgeting beyond tactical project estimation, presenting numerous examples of cost breakdowns covering all phases of the systems development lifecycle, from architecture to maintenance.

The final case study moves into even more adventurous ground, discussing a company seeking to Internet-enable its internal systems via takeover (hostile if necessary) of a specialist firm. The ensuing narrative outlines the due diligence such a move requires, and the various tactical and strategic issues it may raise. A brief discussion of international intercultural relationships is excellent.

The book has only one minor flaw: it was obviously written during the dot-com bubble. There are frequent references to industry dynamics such as a venture-funded firm's survival depending on extreme time-to-market pressures, and perhaps an overemphasis on faddish Web technology.

This book is easily on my Top 10 software engineering book list. It provides a lucid, crisp overview of business issues that are all too mysterious to the average software engineer. Given the potential that well-architected, business-responsive software has to increase productivity, this volume is a service to both the software engineers and the enterprises that employ them.

Practical Advice and Useful Examples!.......2001-11-14

Don Reifer's book provides information not found in existing books on software engineering, process improvement, and project management. His primary audience is technical people who must sell a project to business people. In particular, he provides concrete, practical advice for selling a process improvement program. For example, Chapter 4 stresses the importance of focusing on cost avoidance instead of cost reduction to justify improvements. In Chapter 7 he suggests briefing middle managers individually to obtain their support. Based on my experience, this is sound advice because middle managers are often the most difficult people to convince in an organization. Giving personal attention to each manager pays big dividends later. He also suggests taking advantage of state tax laws to partially offset the costs of training employees. This is a win-win strategy for both the firm and the state. Training gives employees new skills and improves retention. This, in turn, helps the firm obtain more business and so generate more income for the local economy and more tax revenues for the state. He explains the difference between project and capital funds, and how to exploit this difference to obtain the resources you need. The book has many useful checklists. For example, one identifies the types and sources of information needed to prepare a business case. Another identifies the critical items to check when deciding to acquire a business.

His book will also be of interest to marketing people who are preparing sales presentations for complicated technical products. For example, these individuals could prepare business cases to compare possible alternatives. Even experienced managers unfamiliar with software products and process improvement will find the case studies useful.

Don Reifer illustrates the concepts presented in Part 1 with actual case studies in Part 2. These are based on his 30+ years of experience in the software field. The case study in Chapter 7 begins with what amounts to an engineering view of the problem and then the author provides comments indicating how a manager would like to see the information presented. This case study really shows the contrast between the technical and management ways of thinking. The case study in Chapter 8 shows how to assess the value of a company whose primary assets are intellectual property and knowledge capital.

Overall, the book is concise and well written. I was able to quickly absorb the concepts and techniques without spending a lot of time. It is a valuable addition to my reference shelf.

Will be a classic.......2001-10-31

This truly excellent book fills a large void in the software engineering and IT world - tying the business case to software. It is of paramount importance to demonstrate a quantitative, bottom-line impact when embarking on a software development or evolution project. Too few engineers and managers consider the full business context when making decisions. Many hard lessons in my 20 years of experience could have been avoided if I had the insights and techniques that this book provides.

I expect Mr. Reifer's book to be a classic in the field. It is chockfull of practical methods with worked-out examples of making the software business case. Not only is it rigorous in it's quantitative approach, but the author's broad and seasoned perspective helps practitioners steer through the minefield of people, politics and organizations. I seriously believe we would have more successful software projects if all technical people took on such a balanced view.

Making the Software Business Case: Improvement by the Numbers
Average customer rating:
Making the Software Business Case: Improvement by the Numbers
Donald J. Reifer
Manufacturer: Addison-Wesley Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OOQVH8

Average customer rating:
Making the Software Business Case: Improvement by the Numbers
Donald J. Reifer
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MU4OVY

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