We collectively shook our heads at the famous Oprah episode when Terry McMillan spoke of the unraveling of her marriage to her Jamaican cub. Even though he and his arched eyebrows looked as gay as Elton John and RuPaul having a tea party at a Cher concert– she was no less, bamboozled.
On a positive note, it did reveal a subject secretly harbored in the black community: the rise of down low brothers. Like a lurking plague, women gave their men double-takes, read scary memoirs and walked in a state of fear to avoid becoming another McMillan victim. The stats of HIV/AIDS rates became more foreseeable, as women were contracting the disease from men who slept with other men. And although the dust cleared and the subject has been beaten to death, we’re no less shocked by the foolishness still going on.
Check out, author, Joy Marie’s recent post:
One night, I was lying in bed feeling extremely sad and lonely. I had been crying all day. My husband was sound asleep beside me. Something told me to listen to Gary’s cell phone messages. I slid out of bed and took his cell phone into the bathroom. My hands were already shaking, it was almost as if I knew something disturbing was about to happen. Suddenly, I heard a man’s voice calling my husband, “Baby.”
My heart started pounding, I couldn’t breath, and my body began to tremble from head to toe. The man was telling Gary how good he looked as he walked into the office today. He called him “his baby,” and sounded very proud. As I was reeling from shock, I heard another voice message from the same man, telling Gary he couldn’t get together with him at the job this weekend, and he hoped he wasn’t mad. The tone was very intimate — the way a man would speak to his woman. The way Gary didn’t speak to me.
Recent news has taught us that this is not a black issue, but an issue for all walks of life. What is it that makes men lie? Do the women these men are involved with seemed so judgmental that they can’t be truthful?
Opinions?
