RENWL

New Reads: Dangerous Liaisons: Blacks, Gays, and the Struggle for Equality

Now that’s an appetizing title. We haven’t read the book. However we get tweeted tons of great new titles from @blackgaybooks.

So we’re going to feature at least one book a week. This week is Dangerous Liasons: Blacks, Gays, and the Struggle for Equality

Here’s the book’s description:

A groundbreaking study of the intersections of race and sexuality, by an all-star group of writers. From Selma and Stonewall to California’s Proposition 209 and the Defense of Marriage Act, blacks and gays continue to face resistance. Conservatives often lump these two groups together by arguing that both are demanding not equal rights, but “special” rights. In fact, gay rights activists have drawn parallels between their own struggles and the civil rights movement. Yet others have balked at any comparison, and conflict between the minorities has recently arisen. In an unprecedented undertaking, Dangerous Liaisons provides a platform for the leading minds of both communities, including those who straddle both worlds, to debate the volatile subject of the relationship between African Americans and homosexuals. In eleven newly commissioned pieces together with five classic essays, Dangerous Liaisons addresses such timely issues as attitudes toward gay marriage versus attitudes toward interracial marriage; the growth of gay and lesbian rights organizations and homophobia in the black church; and conflict among minorities in the arts. Dangerous Liaisons presents well-known historians, political analysts, activists, artists, writers and philosophers on minority relations in the struggle for legal, social, and cultural equality.

Contributors:
Michael Bronski
George Chauncey
Cheryl Clark
Cathy Cohen
Gary Comstock
Samuel Delany
Martin Duberman
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Jewelle Gomez
Pillip Brian Harper
Audre Lorde
Robert Reid-Pharr
Darieck Scott
Barbara Smith
Alisa Solomon
Cornel West

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Many gays and lesbians have suffered from oppression in the United States; so have many African Americans. But their mutual suffering has not necessarily led to sympathy and collaboration: witness the sharp protests among some black leaders when queer activists compare their struggle to the civil rights movement, or the subtle exclusion of gays and lesbians of color from some activist organizations. The essays in Dangerous Liaisons all stem from the premise that this division is counterproductive in combating both racism and homophobia. Contributors include Henry Louis Gates Jr., Audre Lorde, Cornel West, and Samuel Delany. Jewelle Gomez describes the ways in which her acceptance in the black community has often been predicated upon suppressing her lesbianism, while Martin Duberman describes his experiences researching and writing his biography of Paul Robeson. In all these essays runs an undercurrent that Barbara Smith makes explicit: “All of the aspects of who I am are crucial, indivisible, and pose no inherent conflict.”

From Publishers Weekly
In 17 new and classic essays, historians, political analysts and artists assess why blacks and gays have such a volatile relationship, despite their shared experiences of discrimination in education and on the job, of police harassment and the devastating impact of AIDS. Author and activist Barbara Smith gets right to the heart of the matter: “the most maddening question anyone can ask me is, ‘Which do you put first: being black, a woman or gay?’” The assumption that identities must be “prioritized” may be at the root of persistent conflict among black and gay rights organizations. Rutgers professor and poet Cheryl Clarke’s groundbreaking 1983 essay “The Failure to Transform,” in which she confronts homophobia within the black left, appears with a contemporary response, “Fighting Homophobia versus Challenging Heterosexism,” from Yale professor Cathy Cohen and doctoral candidate Tamara Jones, who believe that the positive “shift in political and academic rhetoric fails to reflect a deep understanding of heterosexism as a normative system.” In an interview with Rev. Edwin Sanders of Nashville’s Metropolitan Interdenominational Church, Gary David Comstock discusses the role of the black church in facilitating understanding between the two communities, while Jewelle Gomez’s analysis of the history of “passing” among blacks reveals black lesbians as the “tragic mulattas” of contemporary society. Overall, this is a stirring collection that doesn’t shy away from the prickly questions that vex the relationship between the two communities.

From the Author
A groundbreaking book on intersections of race & sexuality. Dear Readers, Many have pointed out the parallels between the lynching of James Byrd, Jr. in Texas and the murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. The erosion of affirmative action in last November’s election seems to have gone hand-in-hand with the defeat of equal rights initiatives for lesbians and gays in states across the country. In “Dangerous Liaisons,” the leading minds of both communities discuss their similarities and their differences. I received very enthusiastic responses when I first brought the attention of this book to publishers. One editor said he read through it with “unalloyed interest.” Another claimed she was sure it would “change the current debate” and would be “a real contribution to the literature.” As much as the idea was admired, however, all claimed that with the current corporate climate of downsizing, mergers and profit margins, they couldn’t take the risk of publishing a book about two minorities. All, that is, except The New Press, a non-profit publishing house which prides itself on operating in the public interest. The contributors have worked very hard to write about a difficult and sensitive topic. The essays and interviews are well written, accessible, and on everything from history and politics, to the church and grassroots organizations, to novels, poetry and motion pictures. Whether you order a copy, or not, I hope you will talk to your friends about this issue and help us further the discussion and understanding between African Americans and the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgendered community. Many thanks, Eric Brandt.