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  Down-Low Genealogies To discuss AIDS in black communities is to discuss a multiplicity of identities, definitions of membership, locations of power, and strategies for the political, social and economic survival of the community, because all these factors interact with a disease that divides and threatens ever-growing segments of these populations. —Cathy J. Cohen, The Boundaries of Blackness Genealogy is gray, meticulous, and patiently documentary. It operates on a field of entangled and confused parchments, on documents that have been scratched over and recopied many times. —Michel Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History” Commissioned and then later dropped by the cable channel, LOGO, one of three stations catering to queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender audiences, Abigail Child’s documentary, On the Downlow (2007), conforms to the genre of exposé: “There’s a secret within the African American community,” the tagline begins. “This film raises the curtain.”1 Principally , On the Downlow follows the lives of four men in Cleveland, Ohio. It opens with images of the city: scenes of closed factories, depictions of waste siphoning off dilapidated buildings, a shot of a police car, and then two black men, walking amid this postindustrial carnival. Cinematographer Arthur Jafa, whose other credits include Crooklyn (1994) and Daughters of the Dust (1991), has been praised for the intimacy of the shots, which bring audiences into the “secret world” of down-low men. A disembodied voice speaks over the montage; he describes living in the projects , having been a target of gun violence, being a thug, and coming up and living in “the street.” We soon learn that the voice belongs to Ray, who at eighteen is the youngest of the film’s four subjects. In the promotional materials for the film, Ray is pictured in a backward baseball cap and basketball jersey, his face and eyes lowered, seemingly caught in prayer or in a personal moment of shame.   DOWNLOW GENEALOGIES Ray soon explains the negative reactions one could potentially receive if found to be on the down low, as viewers are brought into the home that he shares with what he calls his “gay family.” The film moves to a montage of distorted shots of urban nightlife scenes accompanied by voiceovers of several distinct and sometimes contradictory interpretations of the down low: it is a hustle for black male sex workers and their white gay johns, it is a learned behavior from prison, it is a performance, it is the only option for black men. Ray’s understanding of his sexuality differs from these explanations: “I can’t wake up to a man every day. I don’t do the tough guys or the soft ones. I see a femme queen, and it’s just like a woman. I was just born like this.” Ray’s “confession” sets the tone for the film, as other subjects—Antonio (sometimes referred to as Tony or Toniqua ), Kerwin, and Billy—each describe their sexual identities for the benefit of viewers at home. Tony, who identifies as gay, is in a long-term relationship and cites his earlier experience with incarceration in order to explain the “cause” of his sexuality. Kerwin, alternatively, openly identifies as bisexual and is explicit about the types of women to whom he is attracted : “as far as being on the down low, it comes with the territory . . . if I am with a girl, it’s going to be a gorgeous girl. She’s got to turn heads . . . she’s got to have long hair, light skinned, tall and has a big booty.” For Kerwin, bisexuality and the down low can coexist: “it comes with the territory”—presumably of black masculinity, which the film’s larger narrative seems to suggest. Audiences follow Kerwin on a shopping trip with another film subject, Billy, who describes the difficulties in losing parental rights for his two children, revoked presumably when knowledge of his sexuality was used in the custody hearing. As the film alternatively captures the subjects’ speculations about the degree to which their communities are suspicious about their sexual identity and stages the subjects outing themselves to their loved ones, it becomes strikingly clear that a documentary intent on exposing African American sexual secrets is, at its core, a vehicle for coming-out narratives. Kerwin, for example, comes out to a friend from work; Tony’s boyfriend George tells his high school girlfriend, Marquita; Billy’s story hinges on the consequences of being out; and Ray’s “secret” is circulating as widely as the...

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