The 2012 National Lesbian and Gay journalist of the year Steven Thrasher wrote an interesting piece for BuzzFeed about Tiger Mandingo in which he characterizes him with the term “HIV Scapegoat”. In Mr. Thrasher’s piece, CypherAvenue.com gets a-link-back to an essay Nicholas Delmacy wrote about Tiger Mandingo and HIV shaming. Check out a portion of the article below and as always; let us know what you think.
How College Wrestling Star “Tiger Mandingo” Became An HIV Scapegoat
BuzzFeed: Steven Thrasher
ST. CHARLES, Mo. — In January 2013, a white male college student in Missouri noticed a profile on a gay mobile hookup app for a black guy with ripped abs and a chiseled chest with the username “Tiger Mandingo.”
“I am more into white guys, but I like black guys,” the student told BuzzFeed. He connected with Tiger because he was “gorgeous, he had great legs, and he was well-endowed.”
The student at Lindenwood University in the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles quickly recognized that in real life, Tiger Mandingo was also a student at his school: Michael Johnson, a recent transfer student on Lindenwood’s wrestling team. They hooked up later that month in Johnson’s dorm room, where, the student said, Johnson told him he was “clean.” He gave Johnson a blow job.
Johnson invited him to go out sometime, but the student got busy and “didn’t have time for that.” They didn’t hook up again until early October.
This time, they had anal sex without a condom. “I let him come in me,” the student said. He wanted bareback sex, he said, because Johnson was “huge,” “only my third black guy,” and — as he said Johnson told him yet again — “clean.”
The student said he has barebacked with multiple “friends and ex-boyfriends,” situations in which “we trusted each other. I mean, I don’t just let anybody do it.” Yet he also said he had bareback sex “with people I barely knew.” In those cases, he said, “I knew they were clean,” sometimes just “by looking at them.”
The student’s nonchalance changed when he described a call he got from Johnson a few days after their second hookup: “He calls me and he said, ‘I found out I have a disease.’ And I asked, ‘Is there a cure?’ and he said, ‘I don’t know.’ And I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ I got pissed. I had asked him several times, and he’d said he was clean, and I trusted him! And I got mad at him, and then he got mad at me for getting mad, and then he said, ‘I gotta go.’”
That same day, Oct. 10, Johnson was pulled out of his class and led away in handcuffs by the St. Charles police. He was later charged with one count of “recklessly infecting another with HIV” and four counts of “attempting to recklessly infect another with HIV,” felonies in the state of Missouri.
Johnson has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, public defender Heather Donovan, allowed BuzzFeed to interview Johnson in jail with her present, under the condition that he not answer questions about his case. Asked later to respond to a detailed list of points raised in this article, including whether Johnson always disclosed his HIV status or ever had intercourse without a condom after learning he had HIV, Donovan wrote that “neither Michael and I feel comfortable answering [BuzzFeed’s questions] at this time since his case is still pending.”
News of Johnson’s arrest, coupled with reports of more than 30 videotaped sexual encounters on Johnson’s laptop, rocked St. Charles and lit up local broadcasts and international headlines. It’s been erroneously reported that Johnson has also been charged for making the tapes, but he hasn’t. The videos, like the sex acts themselves, might have been consensual. Julie Vomund, spokeswoman for St. Charles Prosecuting Attorney Tim Lohmar, wrote to BuzzFeed that the “St. Charles County Cyber Crime Unit is still working to fully review the videos to identify the people involved and at this time we have not determined if those on the video gave their consent to be filmed… there is still the possibility in the future to amend charges with additional counts.”
Lindenwood University urged anyone who’d had “intimate contact” with Johnson to get tested for HIV, and many did. The student Johnson had sex with went to St. Louis Effort for AIDS for an HIV test, which came back negative, as did subsequent tests. He didn’t press charges himself. Still, he said, “he infected someone with HIV. Without medication, that person could get AIDS, so he’s slowly killing someone. It’s a form of murder, in a sense. I hate to say it, since he’s a nice guy.”
With few exceptions, judgments around the internet concurred: Johnson was a predatory “monster” who was intentionally “spreading HIV/AIDS.” A typical comment on Instagram proclaimed him the “Worst type of homosexual: a strong one with HIV.” Overtly racist blogs, like Chimpmania.com, labeled him an “HIV Positive Buck.”
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At this time, I have this to say. 1. When you have intimate relations with someone, it’s up to you to protect yourself. People may lie about HIV and other STDs because they just want to bust a nut and they don’t care about you. They also may not know their HIV and other STD status. I understand that about 20% of people with the HIV infection don’t know that they are HIV-positive. 2. When an HIV-positive person has intimate relations with someone, when asked about HIV status, he must tell the truth. Even if condoms are used, that fact is no excuse to lie about HIV status. Why? Condoms break, come off and tear all the time and it’s up to the HIV-negative person to have the facts so that he can determine his risk and whether he wants to take that risk.
Seems like the student who barebacked previously and “trusted” past partners was rocked to his core.
You go about with risky behavior and now want to get all self righteous when shyt just got real? Have a seat.
I’m curious as to his motivation for having unprotected sex and knowingly putting others at risk. Did he just not give a f– or did he want to spread it?! I honestly have no sympathy for the “victims” because having unprotected sexual contact with a relative stranger w/o proof of his status is reckless on their parts too. These individuals were all adults and knew about practicing safe sex. It’s your responsibility to protect yourself in consensual encounters. I saw the guy’s Instagram and I could tell he was a ho, so bump what he says…I’d make him wrap it up ’cause you’re probably number 12 that month! This was unfortunate, but needs to be a wakeup call! These type of media stories are double edge swords ‘tho. On one end it raises awareness about the importance of testing regulary and protecting yourself 100% of the time for hookups, but then on the other it’s very negative for gay/bi men because it feeds into the stereotype that we’re reckless & nasty degenerates, who have an unnatural sexual appetite.《Sigh》I’m glad to see that in the past year or so tho’, the media outlets have been reporting stories about straight men knowingly spreading HIV. This shows that it’s just not a gay/bi issue.
¤Side Note: If you can get charges for knowingly exposing someone to HIV and other STIs. Women who claimed they were on birth control when they were not or didn’t use it regularly (thus ineffective), should get charges too. Like maybe fraud or something. Just Saying! LOL
TBH, this guy doesn’t seem like the brightest star in the constellation. I just don’t see him too worried about the consequences of his actions before or after learning his status.
In a way, I feel like he was taken advantage of by people who wanted him only sexually. Add in his learning disabilities and you have the embodiment of young, dumb, and full of…. True, he did get some sexual satisfaction out of the deal too but again, you’ve got someone who many people put on a pedestal because they were attracted to his looks, body, and penis. He liked the attention from all of that so it was ‘win win’ in a sense.
Not saying that that’s an excuse for what’s happened because in the end, he’s responsible for his part in all of this too. If you extrapolate from his Instagram account, you can see he was aware enough to stay in shape, walk in some balls, and keep getting the attention he wanted.
Many issues here…this entire situation proves what many already think about the gay community…that you all (regardless of race) are nothing but a bunch of whores who screw around. With that being said, why should anyone outside of the gay community, especially the medical field and other organizations, really get about HIV prevention for gay men or take you all seriously when you’re fighting for marriage? Another thing: all this ape did was perpetuate the stereotype that black gay men, especially of the those of the darker hue, want nothing but to screw everything including an electric outlet. He is the epitome of a mandingo buck…and needs to be locked away for the rest of his life. Another issue…the stereotype of the delicate white bottom and the big black man…this white male’s mentality, whether you like it or not, is how most white gay men think, especially the bottoms. Note how he doesn’t mess with black men as in dating, but has no problem hooking up with one in private…now wants to play like he is the little delicate white victim. Just like back in the days when slave masters’ daughters secretly slept with black buck slaves…and then were the poor pitiful white delicate flower when it was found out. Same shit, different day. Black men are so damn loose ya’ll will fuck anything. Black men’s worst enemy are their penises.
I object to your racism expressed by calling this black man an ape. You wrote it and you should apologize.That’s reprehensible!
Your statement “Black men are so damn loose ya’ll will fuck anything” is also insulting! You should apoligize for that too.
I am tired of every time you’re frank people want to cry racism…especially when talking about black men’s sexual irresponsibility and wanton behavior. Right now, heterosexual black men are dealing with a bunch of illegitimate babies…gay black men are dealing with a surge in HIV rates…any similarities? I am a light skinned black male myself…and I call it as I see it. And he was acting like an ape…he doesn’t deserve to be called, or treated like a man…only a beast would do what he did.
You say that you are black. Just because you are black doesn’t give you license to racially bash black people. There is a lot of self-hating, anti-black black racism going around. Due to history, anyone with half a brain knows better than to refer to black people as apes.
I notice that you mentioned for some reason that you are “light skinned”. I wonder why you mentioned that? What relevance does that have to the subject at hand? Did you write that to minimize your blackness, your Africanness?
I’m tired of people thinking that they can say things any how and that they are not a part of the problem. And I’m tired people spouting off with simple but untimately stupid comments and “solutions” when they know little to nothing about relevant things such as the science relating to global warming or sometimes history or sometimes psychology or sometimes sociology, etc.
. In medicine, the Hippocratic Oath says: “First do no harm”
The song “Accentuate the Positive” by Johnny Mercer said: “You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between”
Noted Black Panther Party founder and self-proclaimed revolutionary said: “What we’re saying today is that you’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.”
From the medical field, from entertainment and from a leader in black liberation, we get those words of wisdom. These words of wisdom all essentially…
From the medical field, from entertainment and from a leader in black liberation, we get those words of wisdom. These words of wisdom all essentially say the same thing: First do no harm and accentuate the positive, eliminate (not excuse) the negative and do that because if you’re not part of the solution (the positive), then you’re part of the problem (the negative). It is unclear to me how calling a black person an ape makes a positive contribution to the uplift of African Americans or black/people of African descent anywhere. In fact, it doesn’t. It is clear to me that it’s part of the problem. It’s a part of the negative! You are part of the problem.
Again with the “generalization” of an entire ethnic group because of the actions of “more than” a few idiots. I personally, practice a self imposed celibacy. There are quite a few of us black dudes that do this. Are you counting us in your “All Black Gay Men are Big Whorish Irresponsible Bucks”? What about all the HIV negative black gay men that DO use condoms? You including them as well? Get off your soapbox my dude and try to start refining your direction of hate to the actual perpetrators instead of the entire room. Don’t get me wrong, peoples’ ignorance pisses me off too. Im sick of the myriad of stupid shit “we” as a people are known for (due to the actions of a few, we’re all stigmatized” but I know that we’re not ALL legitimately under that umbrella of stereotypes. You got a lot of hate in you, man. Take it from someone who has severe anger issues. You gotta re-analyze your way of thinking, starting with your personal views on Black/White interactions. A lot of what you feel is true in a lot of cases, but not ALL of them. Feel how you want, nobody can change that, but you need to learn to express them a lil differently if you want people to actually LISTEN to what you have to say, cause right now, I think the better majority of us are givin’ you the side eye & stank lip, my dude.
On a side note, going back to your rant about Blk/Why relations (gay and str8, you referenced both at varying points between yesterday and today)…you said you’re light-skinned. So SOMEWHERE along your ancestry there was an interracial coupling. So in regards to whoever it was (your parents or grandparents) do you view that coupling as “The Mastuh’s daughter secretly getting slammed by the Black Buck” or “The White Man Taking Advantage of The House Nigguh”? Little bit of a contradiction there, bro.
First of all, I never said all…that is the stupid argument that political correctness breads. I never said ALL. If it doesn’t apply, let it fly. So your argument is, because I’m light skinned and somewhere down the line some of my female ancestors got raped that I should be into interracial dating and not be critical of some of the elements that come along with it? You sound stupid Sir.
WHO said “raped”, bro. Again with the unnecessary anger. It could’ve been 100% consensual for all any of us know. I was referencing your apparent “disdain” for any black man that happens to be attracted to a white person, hence my question…do you view the circumstances that brought about your skin tone as being one where one of the acting parties was objectifying the other. And I never said you need to be accepting of interracial coupling. I personally could give less than a f$%k what you feel about it. I just said you should refine your bitterness toward it and don’t generalize an entire group for the stupidity/irresponsibility of a few.
I could care less about black men who are attracted to white people…to each his own, and that wasn’t my point. However, I am going to call out dynamics when it comes to white men that I see are prevalent, because while I wouldn’t look once at a white man, I know how they see me…and it isn’t at all flattering. This whole story did nothing but perpetuate the black buck/white flower archetype, something many gay black men and straight black men fall for all the time. Like I said, date who you want…I just call it like I see it. I am not “bitter” because I have an opinion. Saying I’m generalizing is nothing but a deflection. And as far as my skin tone, of course it was objectification dumb ass. My foremothers didn’t even own their bodies! That was a stupid question…that also had NOTHING to do with the topic.
Eh…just the fact that you had to take the “Low Road” and resort to name calling shows that it’s best to agree to disagree on this one. Your anger obviously prevents you from having any kind of adult conversation. Peace, bro.
I’m sorry for those that contracted HIV from him but in the end it is up to you to protect yourself. Even if a dude says he is clean, and has the paper work to show he has been tested, you still can’t trust that he is clean, well unless you meet him at the doctors office and get with it right after he gets the paper work. I mean who has he been with since that week or so has gone by showing he is clean? come on people take some responsibility for your actions …on both sides of the table. Are people really that dumb to think that letting a dozen dudes bust that nut in you is safe?
You brought up a good point about testing. Some people usually see the results and dates and be like okay he’s “clean”, but if he had high risk sex immediately after the test and lies about it, the results really could no longer be true.
The sad thing that’ll I’ve heard from some guys, mostly who are straight. Is that they consciously do not use condoms unless the women/men tell them to. They use the STI tests as a means to see if they dodged the bullet. (Even Neo couldn’t dodge all the bullets on the rooftop.) I was told that if their results were negative, they’ll continue having unprotected sex until they get a test result that’s positive for something. Isn’t that sick and some of the dumbest mess you’ve ever heard? Unfortunately that’s the mindset of a lot of the youth today. They feel invincible. Stuff has to get real for them to take serious notice.
Think about this however, if a good number of black men are being raised by single mothers who may be timid when it comes to talking about sex with them except ‘don’t brang no babies up in my house,’ who are they going to learn about sex from? Internet porn and their boys. Internet porn isn’t real sex and their boys won’t tell them about the responsibility.
We need parents to stop being sheepish about the sex talk or they need to find someone they trust to do it for them because most schools only talk about abstinence and don’t even bother with ‘but if it does happen, this is what you need to do.’ We also need parent to have the talk in stages. Can’t wait until grass is on the field. But you can have age appropriate talks that progress as the child matures.
The Sex Talk starts when they ask about why boys have penises and girls have vaginas.
Teens and young adults are not worried about if a baby gets made. A lot of gay men are not worried about HIV like they should be.
The day before this guy got arrested, if he had gone to any gay club in America, he would have had guys crawling all over him because he ‘doesn’t look sick.’
It goes with the trend that started in the late 80s and 90s with gay men throwing themselves into the gym to beef up because they didn’t want to have the frail emaciated look of HIV patients of the time because if you were muscular, you looked healthy.
I think, for the most part, you can not depend on other people to always protect you and have your best interests at heart. You also have to take responsibility for your own health and safety and protect yourself. I personally have never had unprotected sex. You have to look out for #1 when it comes to situations where one thing can affect you negatively for the rest of your life. My longest relationship was a little over a year and he no doubt tried but I never felt like it was worth the risk. Once you contract something, you may have it forever. I have never understood the reasoning behind individuals knowingly infecting others with an STD. On the other hand some responsibility has to be on the person who contracted the STD because they had unprotected sex with someone they did not know and had no way of confirming their status.
I dont run shit around here, but what I will say is that we don’t need to be giving attn to this ‘James’ commenter, or anyone else talking as racist/rude/ridiculous/disrespectful/crazy. This is not bossip. Please ignore such comments.
James has issues and I urge him to seek professional help. Black gay men are no more or less promiscuous then other men, gay, bi or straight. Folsom St Fair is a multicultural display of aggressive sexual behavior. White gay males in the Bay Area feel nudity is a civil right for them and displaying their sexual overtures to those not participating is their right. Do you condemn them with equal ferocity?
Probably not.
We are all adults and we should know when playing Russian Roulette, the bullet sometimes win. The same is true with unprotected sex. He had a responsibility but the bottoms had a greater responsibility to themselves. We are all grown.
I said the gay community in general, I never just singled out black gay men. Yes, most gay men and most black men tend to be sexual frivolous. I am critical of gay white men and black gay men equally. HIV/AIDs continues to plague the gay male community because there is nothing but a bunch of fucking going on, and I believe it is a waste of money trying to prevent this from happening to a group of people who are nothing but a bunch of whores. I don’t feel sorry for HIV+ gay men who got it through willing consensual sex. They got what they had coming to them, you’re right. And the Folsom nude thing had nothing to do with the topic but anyway that is disgusting as well.
This big black buck myth keeps rearing its ugly head. His color nor his physique/ strength have no correlation to his sexual prowess, malice/ bad judgement, or HIV status. All that rhetoric is just bad logic and yellow journalism.
I know there’s really no such thing as common sense, but folks need to just be more proactive. Always strap it up. Don’t blame anybody else for the consequence of your mistakes if you were clearly being careless and using poor judgement. Yeah, condoms break. But that never stopped folks from using them. And it never will. To be on the SAFEST side, be abstinent. Extreme for most, but I’m just sayin’…
because Johnson was “huge,” “only my third black guy,”
I don’t want to jdge anyone’s sexuality,but Really man? that was worth the risk?
Can someone explain to me where they get the idea that bareback sex is okay? Sorry I don’t understand. It’s so dangerous and risky. Few minutes of a sexual high w/ no condom is not worth a lifetime of taking pills. I know things have gotten better with HIV treatments BUT daaayyyuuummm daaayyyuuummm daaayyyuuummm! We got to do better! #sexeducation
It’s really not that deep. Regardless if the “victims” used protection or not, a man that knew he was HIV positive still decided to have raw sex with people. Triflin!
All you people who are taking blame away from this man and making excuses for the matter are no better than him. SMFH Scapegoat lol yes indeed.
Wait, did Tiger Mandingo actually potentially infect anyone after he learned he was positive (without disclosing his status). This normally makes a substantial difference in HIV criminalization laws, and from this article it looks like he had told this partner when he found out he was positive (which is more responsible that many people). If that’s the case, then he’s no more reckless than the others he was sleeping with, as the anonymous student admitted barebacking with “several people he trusted”.
Now if he was still having raw sex without disclosing his status AFTER he learned he was positive, its a completely different situation.
Dean in many states it doesn’t matter if the person is infected or not you can be charged just on their word that you didn’t tell them. You lose all your rights for being positive even if you are telling the truth.
Absof’inglutely he was having unprotected sex with multiple partners on multiple different occasions after he definitively knew that he was infected. It’s 2017, he is getting a new trial, but already it has been confirmed that two people appeared to have gotten the virus from him (there may be more that come out in this new trial). He better be careful because I believe the appeals court ordered a completely new trial (not just a resentencing or rehearing). Instead of getting 30 years, if it comes out that several people were actually physically infected by him, he could actually end up getting more time.
First and foremost bruhs PLEASE understand these laws are PURELY racist and unjust and an attack on the black community. I just watched a video of a black woman who cheated with a married man who had HIV and she had him arrested for not telling her. The man is a minister in Atlanta, the place that is becoming the capital of HIV arrests for black men. Nobody questioned why this ho was having an affair with a married man they made him the demon and he got 10 years even though she is NOT positive. WHAT?
If a person is not infected there is no evidence, how can they be charged, in addition, if the person tells a person they are positive where is his protection if the other person says no then runs all over the city and spreads the man’s personal business. Finally how is one person’s word chosen over the other person’s? A woman (of course black) in Atlanta was arrested for not disclosing her status to a man even though she had witnesses who stated they were there when she told him. They still threw her ass in jail. These laws are 25 years old and do not reflect today’s HIV treatment. If someone puts a gun to your head and says, I’m gonna pull the trigger but the chamber is empty, how apt would you be to check to make sure you are protected before the trigger is pulled? People who have these folks arrested for THEIR carelessness should be arrested for being idiots. Black men, once again, are disproportionately arrested for HIV crimes across the country. Take PERSONAL responsibility.
This definitely does highlight some much larger issues I have with HIV criminalization laws, which is that:
1. They deter people from getting tested (if you don’t know, you have nothing to legally disclose, and become much more difficult to charge with a crime).
2. They can be used maliciously by partners (A former friend of mine contracted HIV from an ex he knew was positive, but then threatened to tell the cops he never disclosed, which was an outright lie).
3. It disproportionately affects minorities, specifically blacks and gays (and black gays).
4. Its the kind of crime where the accusation alone can devastate your life, even if you’re eventually found not guilty.
5. It places the blame of sexual risk completely on the other person, even though the victims are choosing to bareback (and in this day and age, everydamnbody should know that a promise does not equal a test result).
Honestly, based on this story Tiger seems like he was as reckless as most teenagers, but at least did do the right thing in contacting his former partners once he found out he was positive. The way the media portrayed him as this predatory monster just really shows all the problems around these laws and how they’re handled.
I don’t care what anyone says….how does this story demonstrate any truth to the statement that “masculine gay/bisexual men of color are not part of the stereotypical gay norm”? (to quote the author’s purpose). How can you justify an HIV+ man intentionally and repeatedly exposing others through what COULD HAVE BEEN PROTECTED SEX? Even with protected sex there is a chance of exposure but at least he would be doing what he could to minimize the risk. I can’t blame someone for calling him an HIV infected Buck. In fact, let’s call it like it is: this Mandingo character was a primitive, savage, right out of the jungle, inconsiderate, brazen negro. Is that better?