Black Queer Studies

by Johnson, E. Patrick; Henderson, Mae G.

• ISBN13: 9780822336297
• ISBN10: 0822336294
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-14
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

While over the past decade a number of scholars have done significant work on questions of black lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered identities, this volume is the first to collect this groundbreaking work and make black queer studies visible as a developing field of study in the United States. Bringing together essays by established and emergent scholars, this collection assesses the strengths and weaknesses of prior work on race and sexuality and highlights the theoretical and political issues at stake in the nascent field of black queer studies. Including work by scholars based in English, film studies, black studies, sociology, history, political science, legal studies, cultural studies, and performance studies, the volume showcases the broadly interdisciplinary nature of the black queer studies project.The contributors consider representations of the black queer body, black queer literature, the pedagogical implications of black queer studies, and the ways that gender and sexuality have been glossed over in black studies and race and class marginalized in queer studies. Whether exploring the closet as a racially loaded metaphor, arguing for the inclusion of diaspora studies in black queer studies, considering how the black lesbian voice that was so expressive in the 1970s and 1980s is all but inaudible today, or investigating how the social sciences have solidified racial and sexual exclusionary practices, these insightful essays signal an important and necessary expansion of queer studies.Contributors. Bryant K. Alexander, Devon Carbado, Faedra Chatard Carpenter, Keith Clark, Cathy Cohen, Roderick A. Ferguson, Jewelle Gomez, Phillip Brian Harper, Mae G. Henderson, Sharon P. Holland, E. Patrick Johnson, Kara Keeling, Dwight A. McBride, Charles I. Nero, Marlon B. Ross, Rinaldo Walcott, Maurice O. Wallace

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Foreword: "Home" Is a Four-Letter Word
SHARON P. HOLLAND	ix
Introduction: Queering Black Studies/"Quaring" Queer Studies
E. PATRICK JOHNSON AND MAE G. HENDERSON	1	(20)
I. DISCIPLINARY TENSIONS: BLACK STUDIES/QUEER STUDIES
Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens: The Radical Potential of Queer Politics?
CATHY J. COHEN	21	(31)
Race-ing Homonormativity: Citizenship, Sociology, and Gay Identity
RODERICK A. FERGUSON	52	(16)
Straight Black Studies: On African American Studies, James Baldwin, And Black Queer Studies
DWIGHT A. MCBRIDE	68	(22)
Outside in Black Studies: Reading from a Queer Place in the Diaspora
RINALDO WALCOTT	90	(16)
The Evidence of Felt Intuition: Minority Experience, Everyday Life, and Critical Speculative Knowledge
PHILLIP BRIAN HARPER	106	(18)
"Quare" Studies, or (Almost) Everything I Know about Queer Studies I Learned from My Grandmother
E. PATRICK JOHNSON	124	(37)
II. REPRESENTING THE "RACE": BLACKNESS, QUEERS, AND THE POLITICS OF VISIBILITY
Beyond the Closet as Raceless Paradigm
MARLON B. ROSS	161	(29)
Privilege
DEVON W. CARBADO	190	(23)
"Joining the Lesbians": Cinematic Regimes of Black Lesbian Visibility
KARA KEELING	213	(15)
Why Are Gay Ghettoes White?
CHARLES I. NERO	228	(21)
III. HOW TO TEACH THE UNSPEAKABLE: RACE, QUEER STUDIES, AND PEDAGOGY
Embracing the Teachable Moment: The Black Gay Body in the Classroom as Embodied Text
BRYANT KEITH ALEXANDER	249	(17)
Are We Family? Pedagogy and the Race for Queerness
KEITH CLARK	266	(10)
On Being a Witness: Passion, Pedagogy, and the Legacy of James Baldwin
MAURICE O. WALLACE	276	(13)
IV. BLACK QUEER FICTION: WHO IS "READING" US?
But Some of Us Are Brave Lesbians: The Absence of Black Lesbian Fiction
JEWELLE GOMEZ	289	(9)
James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room: Expatriation, "Racial Drag," and Homosexual Panic
MAE G. HENDERSON	298	(25)
Robert O'Hara's Insurrection: "Que(e)rying History"
FAEDRA CHATARD CARPENTER	323	(26)
Bibliography	349	(22)
Contributors	371	(4)
Index	375