Synopses & Reviews
Last year, more African Americans were reported with AIDS than any other racial or ethnic group. And while African Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, they account for more than 55 percent of all newly diagnosed HIV infections. These alarming developments have caused reactions ranging from profound grief to extreme anger in African-American communities, yet the organized political reaction has remained remarkably restrained.
The Boundaries of Blackness is the first full-scale exploration of the social, political, and cultural impact of AIDS on the African-American community. Informed by interviews with activists, ministers, public officials, and people with AIDS, Cathy Cohen unflinchingly brings to light how the epidemic fractured, rather than united, the black community. She traces how the disease separated blacks along different fault lines and analyzes the ensuing struggles and debates.
More broadly, Cohen analyzes how other cross-cutting issuesand#8212;of class, gender, and sexualityand#8212;challenge accepted ideas of who belongs in the community. Such issues, she predicts, will increasingly occupy the political agendas of black organizations and institutions and can lead to either greater inclusiveness or further divisiveness.
The Boundaries of Blackness, by examining the response of a changing community to an issue laced with stigma, has much to teach us about oppression, resistance, and marginalization. It also offers valuable insight into how the politics of the African-American communityand#8212;and other marginal groupsand#8212;will evolve in the twenty-first century.
Review
andldquo;McCuneandrsquo;s
Sexual Discretion is an exciting, timely, and important study that blasts the now encrusted mythologies about the so-called and#39;down low,and#39; advancing our understanding of the mass mediation and lived experiences of sexually nonconforming African American men while also stretching and challenging ethnographic methodology and racial theories of sexuality. The book explores an impressive range of social venues andndash; from the
Oprah TV show to the inner workings of a popular Chicago nightclub; from online chat rooms to the sexual contests occurring across black literary history. As McCune tracks how African American men adopt, resist, and disavow the DL as a meaningful sexual identity, he handles these different sites with analytical rigor, deftness, and sensitivity andndash; important given the constant barrage of misinformation fueling the DL controversy. This is a must-read for anyone interested in getting a handle on the complex, fast-changing sexual and racial politics of contemporary U.S. society.andrdquo;
and#160;
Review
and#8220;Sexual Discretion contributes to a powerful and emerging effort to rethink and#8216;the down lowand#8217; as a way to make sense of black masculinity and the public threat it ostensibly represents. McCuneand#8217;s ambitious argument provides a critical and#8216;architextureand#8217; for explaining how the DL is constituted along various mass-mediated trajectories, helping readers to consider, more critically, the ways in which we continually reproduce essentialist/counter-productive notions of race, gender, sexuality and their inextricable linkages. Part of what makes Sexual Discretion so interesting is its effort to keep traditional participant-observation in productive tension with textual, discursive, literary, and media analyses. The bookand#8217;s radical investment in mixed qualitative methods is extremely effective. Moreover, McCune's discussion of and#8216;The Gateand#8217; reads as a powerful ethnographic portrait of Chicago night-life that represents a wonderful new addition to canonical sociological and anthropological forays into that famous city. This is an excellent book that works in the classroom and far beyond it.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;McCuneand#8217;s Sexual Discretionand#160;is a brilliant study of discrete race, gender, and queer, sexual politics. McCuneand#8217;s exceptionally probing and original account of the down low makes this work both unique and essential reading. Sexual Discretion enriches African American studies and gender studies with an exquisite excavation and finely tuned analysis of multi-layered representations and performances of black masculinity.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Sexual Discretion is the first scholarly treatment of straight-passing black men sleeping with other men. McCune's provocative book is an exposand#233; not of the sexual practices that have become part of contemporary discourses about black male sexual life but of the will to truth that continues to haunt sexuality in general. This must-read book is a welcome addition to the evolving field of black queer studies.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Profound. . . . The textsandrsquo; appeal goes beyond mere intellectual engagement whereas McCune delivers a cultural analysis that can be easily consumed by the general public.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Academic yet accessible, McCune takes to task the mediaandrsquo;s contemporary discourse on the andlsquo;down lowandrsquo; by examining the issue through interviews and surveys of 60 DL men, the mediaandrsquo;s fascination and handling of the subject, and a look at the subject in the context of the andlsquo;passingandrsquo; literature.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;In this superlative study, McCune addresses the concept of the andlsquo;down lowandrsquo; in a sophisticated manner that transcends any of the popular literature on the subject.andnbsp;A combination of ethnographic study, media analysis, and theoretical work, the book challenges both the media hysteria regarding the down low and what this concept actually is. . . . Sexual Discretion is a must read for those working in the fields of sexuality, race, and gender studies. One hopes that McCune will continue to revise his research in this rapidly changing culture. Highly recommended.andrdquo;
Synopsis
African American men who have sex with men while maintaining a heterosexual lifestyle in public are attracting increasing interest from both the general media and scholars. Commonly referred to as and#147;down-lowand#8221; or and#147;DLand#8221; men, many continue to have relationships with girlfriends and wives who remain unaware of their same-sex desires, and in much of the media, DL men have been portrayed as carriers of HIV who spread the virus to black women.and#160;
Sexual Discretionand#160;explores the DL phenomenon, offering refreshingly innovative analysis of the significance of media, space, and ideals of black masculinity in understanding down low communities.
Inand#160;Sexual Discretion, Jeffrey Q. McCune Jr. provides the first in-depth examination of how the social expectations of black masculinity intersect and complicate expressions of same-sex affection and desire. Within these underground DL communities, men arenand#8217;t as highly policedand#151;and thus are able to maintain their public roles as and#147;properly masculine.and#8221; McCune draws from sources that range from RandB singer R. Kellyand#8217;s epic hip-hopera series Trapped in the Closet to Oprah's high-profile exposand#233; on DL subculture; and from E. Lynn Harrisand#8217;s contemporary sexual passing novels to McCuneand#8217;s own interviews and ethnography in nightclubs and online chat rooms.and#160;Sexual Discretionand#160;details the causes, pressures, and negotiations driving men who rarely disclose their intimate secrets.
About the Author
Cathy J. Cohenand#160;is the David and Mary Winton Green Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, where she previouslyand#160;served asand#160;Deputy Provost for Graduate Education andand#160;Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
One / Introduction: Discrete/Discreet Acts, Goinand#8217; Down Low
Two / Yoand#8217; Daddyand#8217;s Dysfunctional: Risk, Blame, and Necessary Fictions in Down-Low Discourse
Three / and#147;Outand#8221; in the Club: The Down Low, Hip-Hop,and the Architexture of Black Masculinity
Four / Goinand#8217; Down Low: Virtual Space and thePerformance of Masculine Sincerity
Five / The Pages Are Ridden with Discretion:and#160; Pedagogy of the Pass and Present
Conclusion: From Sexual Discretion to Sexual Suspicion
Notes
References
Index