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Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism
In Black Sexual Politics , one of America's most influential writers on race and gender explores how images of Black sexuality have been used to maintain the color line and how they threaten to spread a new brand of racism around the world today.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
65 people are currently reading
5372 people want to read
About the author
Patricia Hill Collins
42 books509 followersPatricia Hill Collins (born May 1, 1948) is currently a Distinguished University Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the former head of the Department of African American Studies at the University of Cincinnati, and the past President of the American Sociological Association Council.
Collins' work primarily concerns issues involving feminism and gender within the African-American community. She first came to national attention for her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, originally published in 1990.
Collins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1948. The only daughter of a factory worker and a secretary, Collins attended the Philadelphia public schools.
After obtaining her bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in 1969, she continued on to earn a Master of Arts Degree in Teaching from Harvard University in 1970. From 1970 to 1976, she was a teacher and curriculum specialist at St Joseph Community School, among two others, in Boston. She continued on to become the Director of the Africana Center at Tufts University until 1980, after which she completed her doctorate in sociology back at Brandeis in 1984.
While earning her PhD, Collins worked as an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati beginning in 1982. In 1990, Collins published her first book, "Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment". A revised tenth anniversary edition of the book was published in 2000, and subsequently translated into Korean in 2009.
While working at Tufts, she married Roger L. Collins in the year 1977, a professor of education at the University of Cincinnati, with whom she has one daughter, Valerie L. Collins.
In 1990, Collins was the recipient of the prestigious C. Wright Mills Award. She was later awarded the Jessie Bernard Award by the American Sociological Association in 1993. For her book Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism (Routledge, 2005), she was presented the American Sociological Association Distinguished Scholarly Book Award in 2007.
Collins is recognized as a social theorist, drawing from many intellectual traditions; her more than 40 articles and essays have been published in a wide range of fields, including philosophy, history, psychology, and most notably sociology. Moreover, Collins was the recipient of a Sydney Spivack Dissertation Support Award.
The University of Cincinnati named Collins The Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Sociology in 1996, making her the first ever African-American, and only the second woman, to hold this position. She received emeritus status in the Spring of 2005, and became a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. The University of Maryland named Collins a Distinguished University Professor in 2006.
(from Wikipedia)
Collins' work primarily concerns issues involving feminism and gender within the African-American community. She first came to national attention for her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment, originally published in 1990.
Collins was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1948. The only daughter of a factory worker and a secretary, Collins attended the Philadelphia public schools.
After obtaining her bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in 1969, she continued on to earn a Master of Arts Degree in Teaching from Harvard University in 1970. From 1970 to 1976, she was a teacher and curriculum specialist at St Joseph Community School, among two others, in Boston. She continued on to become the Director of the Africana Center at Tufts University until 1980, after which she completed her doctorate in sociology back at Brandeis in 1984.
While earning her PhD, Collins worked as an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati beginning in 1982. In 1990, Collins published her first book, "Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment". A revised tenth anniversary edition of the book was published in 2000, and subsequently translated into Korean in 2009.
While working at Tufts, she married Roger L. Collins in the year 1977, a professor of education at the University of Cincinnati, with whom she has one daughter, Valerie L. Collins.
In 1990, Collins was the recipient of the prestigious C. Wright Mills Award. She was later awarded the Jessie Bernard Award by the American Sociological Association in 1993. For her book Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender and the New Racism (Routledge, 2005), she was presented the American Sociological Association Distinguished Scholarly Book Award in 2007.
Collins is recognized as a social theorist, drawing from many intellectual traditions; her more than 40 articles and essays have been published in a wide range of fields, including philosophy, history, psychology, and most notably sociology. Moreover, Collins was the recipient of a Sydney Spivack Dissertation Support Award.
The University of Cincinnati named Collins The Charles Phelps Taft Professor of Sociology in 1996, making her the first ever African-American, and only the second woman, to hold this position. She received emeritus status in the Spring of 2005, and became a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park. The University of Maryland named Collins a Distinguished University Professor in 2006.
(from Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
February 7, 2017
In this book, Patricia Hill Collins explores the question of why racism has persisted in the United States despite the elimination of legal discrimination. Specifically, she focuses on how popular culture and media replicate, resist, and reproduce old and new forms of discrimination through their portrayals of race, gender, class and sexuality. She complicates our understanding of racism in the post-Civil Rights era by highlighting its entanglement with heterosexism, classism, misogyny, and homophobia. She argues that for anti-racist politics to be successful in the twenty-first century that it must incorporate a more sophisticated politics of gender and sexuality -- one that does not push black women or black homosexuals to the margins in an effort to maintain so-called respectability.
This book would make a great addition to a course on the history of race in the United States. Just as W.E.B. Dubois showed how the color line defined the twentieth century and constrained the opportunities of African Americans in post-Civil War American, Collins details the challenges of fighting racism in a world where the color line seemingly has been erased. She points to the ways in which African-American popular culture both resists and reproduces racial stereotypes. But this book is NOT about blaming victim, but rather about the liberation of consciousness. In short she emphasizes the need to change both the system that confines peoples of color and people's of color reaction to that system, if real change is to take place. For Collins, that means that the African American community must adopt a progressive politics of gender and sexuality that no longer "mimics those of White men and women, but that reflects the needs of actual lived Black experience...In this context, Black people must rebel against existing Black sexual politics throughout the entire system; from the micro-politics that frame the one-on-one interactions of everyday life; through trying to change the ethos of the Black Church and other Black community organizations; through the micro-politics of building new social movements with other groups who are engaged in similar social justice initiatives...When it comes to issues of gender and sexuality, Black youth must lead the way in the next phase of antiracist struggle, because failing to do so virtually guarantees them an impoverished future (307)."
This book would make a great addition to a course on the history of race in the United States. Just as W.E.B. Dubois showed how the color line defined the twentieth century and constrained the opportunities of African Americans in post-Civil War American, Collins details the challenges of fighting racism in a world where the color line seemingly has been erased. She points to the ways in which African-American popular culture both resists and reproduces racial stereotypes. But this book is NOT about blaming victim, but rather about the liberation of consciousness. In short she emphasizes the need to change both the system that confines peoples of color and people's of color reaction to that system, if real change is to take place. For Collins, that means that the African American community must adopt a progressive politics of gender and sexuality that no longer "mimics those of White men and women, but that reflects the needs of actual lived Black experience...In this context, Black people must rebel against existing Black sexual politics throughout the entire system; from the micro-politics that frame the one-on-one interactions of everyday life; through trying to change the ethos of the Black Church and other Black community organizations; through the micro-politics of building new social movements with other groups who are engaged in similar social justice initiatives...When it comes to issues of gender and sexuality, Black youth must lead the way in the next phase of antiracist struggle, because failing to do so virtually guarantees them an impoverished future (307)."
May 3, 2012
In Black Sexual Politics, Hill Collins offers up a dense look at the current & historical landscape of Blackness in the U.S.A. Hill Collins opens the book by explaining why issues of Black identity centered around sexuality are unique, a point that she proves thoroughly throughout the book. She also uses analysis of pop culture to help outline the "New Racism" of our post-Civil Rights culture. Ultimately Hill Collins argues that Black sexual politics must change (especially in this current age of AIDs/HIV) to become more open and inclusive (i.e., liberatory), but in order for this change to take place there must be acknowledgement of the legacy of heterosexism and misogynistic behavior/ideals, coupled with a rejection of Black (sexual) stereotypes.
This text is both innovative and enlightening philosophically and theoretically, and is backed by a host of (sociologically) impressive statistics as well as individual stories.
All books should be so good.
This text is both innovative and enlightening philosophically and theoretically, and is backed by a host of (sociologically) impressive statistics as well as individual stories.
All books should be so good.
January 26, 2014
I approached this read with the understanding that identities are always influx, complicated, and often times contradictory. The author does an incredible job proving her theory. The take-away for me was an understanding of how numerous theoretical frameworks assist us in engaging black sexual and gender politics within a historical and contemporary context.
February 12, 2020
It's heart is in the right place but it really leaves a lot to be desired. It's not intellectually rigorous and the attempt to theorize dating really makes no attemp to account for how messy dating is in general. I don't really know who this book is for.
January 18, 2009
Large cocks
November 22, 2019
"With prison as the metaphor for Black life, freedom becomes its antithesis. Prison can be literal—actual laws and customs that foster forms of subordination of race, class, gender, and sexuality. Prison can also be figurative—ideas about heterosexism and about masculinity and femininity can keep some African Americans as securely locked up in small worlds as the most powerful laws."
August 26, 2020
An interesting continuation of the works of bell hooks and others who speak to the black sexual identities and the way a history of oppression has shaped and continues to shape black identity in America today. Worthy read, not without flaws, also a little out of date. Would love to read an updated version of this text.
March 15, 2025
I really enjoyed this book. It was very... through and informative read.
The author starts from the beginnings of the slave trade and ends with current day struggles.
She also touches on how chattel slavery laid the foundation of how Black people in the United States were/ are treated and viewed by White America.
It's an amazing read.
The author starts from the beginnings of the slave trade and ends with current day struggles.
She also touches on how chattel slavery laid the foundation of how Black people in the United States were/ are treated and viewed by White America.
It's an amazing read.
June 2, 2018
Un must read comme à peu près toute la bibliographie de Patricia Hill Collins. Black sexual politics et La pensée féministe noire sont deux de mes bibles pour ma thèse ! Un travail vraiment extraordinaire.
November 2, 2017
if you've heard about intersectionality and looking for something to read to further expand your knowledge on it, this is one of the books that you should read.
December 31, 2017
Great read and no wonder its a classic. This is a pretty straightforward book about sex and racism, but most impressively, a move to deconstruct the theoretical line between race and gender.
December 22, 2019
This book is 16 years old and it still taught me so much. Wow.
February 27, 2023
different perspective within the black community and how they view things. This book explores the black community on how they view certain aspects of their lives.
February 11, 2024
We need to distribute this book in black communities like crack in the 80s.
April 16, 2021
The book are completely interesting.
March 7, 2015
"Black sexual politics consists of a set of ideas and social practices shaped by gender, race, and sexuality that frame Black men and women's treatment of one another, as well as how African Americans are perceived and treated by others."
This a holistic look at both the past and present (or past-IN-present) ideologies of Black women and Black men and their sexualities. These repressive ideologies have spawn an array of controlling images — gender-specific depictions that are used in aid of power relations —with the sole purpose of allowing oppressive treatment (racism, sexism, heterosexism, chattel slavery, ghettoization, conditional assimilation, ect).
Collins explains that her purpose is to create a wider social justice movement, as the problems talked about pertaining to the unfair treatment if African-Americans can easily start up questions about the inequalities faced in different cultures. Collins also aims to end the silencing of supposedly "cross-cutting" issues (pertaining to black women and LGBTQ Black people) that arise in antiracist (social justice) politics by showing the intersectional characteristics of oppression. Collins acknowledges that just as much as race does, gender, age, sexuality, and class all also play an important role is whether, and how much, someone is oppressed.
The information here encompasses the times/practices of a lot of different periods. She talks about the Europeans discovery of Africans and the studies they used in order to create a subhuman image that would allow Africans enslavement, then the ghettoization from the early to mid-1900s the brought about the visibility of the LGBTQ community and the creation of a social hierarchy among Black people who now began to assimilation into the middle class among white people. Leading all the way up into the early 2000s with advancement of technology and capitalism that make racist practices both undetectable and omnipresent.
Special attention is given to Black popular culture and it's impact in either resisting white hegemony (e.g. increased usage of the n-word among Black people) or helping it (e.g increased sexualized usage of Black women's bodies in music videos). The commodification and representation of Black popular culture in mass media is also looked at: from sports (the controlled use of athletic Black bodies for white entertainment), to hip hop culture (e.g. "Thug Life", video "hoes") to movies (e.g. Training Day, Booty Call) to tv shows (e.g. The Wire, The Cosby Show) and how each one either pushes the controlling images it gains it's meaning from or challenges them.
This book discusses the inequality and disadvantages of a wide range, of all the people who cannot reach this "gold standard" of being a white heterosexual male. But the people who are most focused on (whose inequalities are explained in depth) are Black women and Black LGBTQ. There's a special consideration of young, Black, non-heterosexual, working-class women, like Sakia Gunn, who take up the very bottom of the hegemonic social totem pole and pay the ultimate price for it.
This was the first sociology book I've read, probably the most scholarly book I've read thus far, with lots of statics cross-reference and critical theories. So excuse me if my review is a little subpar. The book definitely gives you a lot of facts and food-for-thought. I recommend it to just about anybody, especially in light of a lot of the racial media news being reported today (from Ferguson to the white-washed Oscars).
Collins explains in the introduction that her purpose is not to give "How-To" instructions on how to solve the problems Black people face in terms of gender/sexuality issues. The book instead acts as a mirror to show just exactly what is going on, and what it means. For tragedies — such as when Black women in poverty are getting abused by both the government and their fellow Black "brothers"; or when a lesbian Black teenager is killed for threatening a man's masculinity; or when well-to-do Black middle-class men and women are used as doormats while being convinced to turn their backs on their fellow Black americans — there needs to be a special look at what internalized beliefs cause this mistreatment to happen (both inter-racially and intra-racially) and how we can break them down. When you see the specialized injustices that are being done not only to Black people as a whole, but certain subcultures within the Black community (the poor or LGBTQ), you come to understand why every Black voice must be lifted and heard in order for the collective Black race to actually begin to see progress.
This a holistic look at both the past and present (or past-IN-present) ideologies of Black women and Black men and their sexualities. These repressive ideologies have spawn an array of controlling images — gender-specific depictions that are used in aid of power relations —with the sole purpose of allowing oppressive treatment (racism, sexism, heterosexism, chattel slavery, ghettoization, conditional assimilation, ect).
Collins explains that her purpose is to create a wider social justice movement, as the problems talked about pertaining to the unfair treatment if African-Americans can easily start up questions about the inequalities faced in different cultures. Collins also aims to end the silencing of supposedly "cross-cutting" issues (pertaining to black women and LGBTQ Black people) that arise in antiracist (social justice) politics by showing the intersectional characteristics of oppression. Collins acknowledges that just as much as race does, gender, age, sexuality, and class all also play an important role is whether, and how much, someone is oppressed.
The information here encompasses the times/practices of a lot of different periods. She talks about the Europeans discovery of Africans and the studies they used in order to create a subhuman image that would allow Africans enslavement, then the ghettoization from the early to mid-1900s the brought about the visibility of the LGBTQ community and the creation of a social hierarchy among Black people who now began to assimilation into the middle class among white people. Leading all the way up into the early 2000s with advancement of technology and capitalism that make racist practices both undetectable and omnipresent.
Special attention is given to Black popular culture and it's impact in either resisting white hegemony (e.g. increased usage of the n-word among Black people) or helping it (e.g increased sexualized usage of Black women's bodies in music videos). The commodification and representation of Black popular culture in mass media is also looked at: from sports (the controlled use of athletic Black bodies for white entertainment), to hip hop culture (e.g. "Thug Life", video "hoes") to movies (e.g. Training Day, Booty Call) to tv shows (e.g. The Wire, The Cosby Show) and how each one either pushes the controlling images it gains it's meaning from or challenges them.
This book discusses the inequality and disadvantages of a wide range, of all the people who cannot reach this "gold standard" of being a white heterosexual male. But the people who are most focused on (whose inequalities are explained in depth) are Black women and Black LGBTQ. There's a special consideration of young, Black, non-heterosexual, working-class women, like Sakia Gunn, who take up the very bottom of the hegemonic social totem pole and pay the ultimate price for it.
This was the first sociology book I've read, probably the most scholarly book I've read thus far, with lots of statics cross-reference and critical theories. So excuse me if my review is a little subpar. The book definitely gives you a lot of facts and food-for-thought. I recommend it to just about anybody, especially in light of a lot of the racial media news being reported today (from Ferguson to the white-washed Oscars).
Collins explains in the introduction that her purpose is not to give "How-To" instructions on how to solve the problems Black people face in terms of gender/sexuality issues. The book instead acts as a mirror to show just exactly what is going on, and what it means. For tragedies — such as when Black women in poverty are getting abused by both the government and their fellow Black "brothers"; or when a lesbian Black teenager is killed for threatening a man's masculinity; or when well-to-do Black middle-class men and women are used as doormats while being convinced to turn their backs on their fellow Black americans — there needs to be a special look at what internalized beliefs cause this mistreatment to happen (both inter-racially and intra-racially) and how we can break them down. When you see the specialized injustices that are being done not only to Black people as a whole, but certain subcultures within the Black community (the poor or LGBTQ), you come to understand why every Black voice must be lifted and heard in order for the collective Black race to actually begin to see progress.
February 29, 2016
Patricia Hill Collins' book is a social diagnostics of sexuality in the American Black community. She examines images, literature, popular culture to trace the how Black sexuality is discussed in the public and in turn how it affects Black lives. Hill Collins' book is very much centered on sexuality insofar as it pertains to heterosexuality and thus offers scant diagnostics on the nuances and gender reversal that queer sexuality offers. This is an oversight, however, that Hill Collins is very much aware of and alludes to the possibilities that a social diagnostic can lead to when queerness and Blackness are taken into account. Moreover, Hill Collins provides readers a thorough analysis of how colonial discourse exists in the present as a continuation of past in present forms of racial bias, in which she terms the new racism. In addition, she provides a detailed historical analysis of slavery's affects on Black sexual politics, with most of harmful stereotypes being re-used imagery and discourse that originated during this period; including the image of the "unrapeable" woman and the male sexual predator. Hill Collins' book is a necessary read and intervention in gender studies as it proves the necessity of an intersectional analysis.
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September 14, 2013This was the most disappointing book I've read in a long time. After reading Hill Collins' moving and impressive _Black Feminist Thought_, I looked forward to reading her take on "the new Racism" and gender and sexuality. I expected her to continue with some of the central claims she has made in earlier works, while considering womanism, queer thought and new race theory. Yet, instead, she makes massive claims without backing them up well, and there is very little in this book that seems innovative or complex. I appreciate this ambitious undertaking - for she examines race, sexuality, gender roles, the prison system, HIV/AIDs, economic disparities, education, crime, etc. in 300 pages, but I find bell hooks, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker to be much more persuasive Black feminist writers.
Many of the cultural references she brings in (with the exception of a couple TV shows and movies, including _The Wire_ and _Monster's Ball_) are from the late eighties and early nineties, making her claims less persuasive and out dated. Again, because I know Hill Collins is a bright and important scholar of our time, it makes this book even more disappointing.
Many of the cultural references she brings in (with the exception of a couple TV shows and movies, including _The Wire_ and _Monster's Ball_) are from the late eighties and early nineties, making her claims less persuasive and out dated. Again, because I know Hill Collins is a bright and important scholar of our time, it makes this book even more disappointing.
February 11, 2014
focusing on the social injustice in the US in a framework of intersectionality of gender, race and class basicly. examines both black men & women's representation on popular culture and the different type of experiences of segregation/discrimination/stereotyping they lived through the history and today.
history of the domination of black men and women and how differently they experienced this domination; black women's and men's representations on pop culture according to their class (working class/middle class) and sexuality (sexual orientation) and how differently their position exists in a white male dominated system; their everyday life experiences and social injustices & steorotypings they bear...
with all these the book introduces the concepts "new racism" and "intersectionality" showing how they are observable in everyday life.
(these concepts are applicable in any form of cultural subordination comparatively.)
a nice-to-read book.
history of the domination of black men and women and how differently they experienced this domination; black women's and men's representations on pop culture according to their class (working class/middle class) and sexuality (sexual orientation) and how differently their position exists in a white male dominated system; their everyday life experiences and social injustices & steorotypings they bear...
with all these the book introduces the concepts "new racism" and "intersectionality" showing how they are observable in everyday life.
(these concepts are applicable in any form of cultural subordination comparatively.)
a nice-to-read book.
November 15, 2011
This book is fantastic, with a great blend of history, popular culture and gender theory analysis to go along with a strong sexuality-based critique of what she calls the new racism. She quotes some of my heroes extensively, and here is my favorite, from James Baldwin - an excerpt, actually. From Nobody Knows My Name in 1993: "Yet, it is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long cherished or a privilege he has long possessed that he is set free -- he has set himself free -- for higher dreams, for greater privileges." So dope.
August 17, 2014
So a few years ago I read a couple of pages from the beginning, the bit with the movie theater. It got me curious.
The first thing that I noticed when I started reading this? It's binarist and cis-sexist. A few years ago I wouldn't have notice and most likely wouldn't have even known those words. Now I can't help but notice. But ok, I read further, preparing myself for sexuality as in gay or straight and nothing more. I get up till page 16 where I see "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgenderED". Yeah, nope. I expected better.
The first thing that I noticed when I started reading this? It's binarist and cis-sexist. A few years ago I wouldn't have notice and most likely wouldn't have even known those words. Now I can't help but notice. But ok, I read further, preparing myself for sexuality as in gay or straight and nothing more. I get up till page 16 where I see "lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgenderED". Yeah, nope. I expected better.
April 1, 2014
I am still reading this book and enjoying every minute of it. I have taken longer than anticipated because the author poses questions that I have to sincerely ponder on and decide what my stance is on the particular issue being raised. Although I do not agree with all of the specifics, I am in agreement with the generalities. I am looking forward to reading the other work that I have by the same author.
October 23, 2020
A great intersectional analysis of race, gender and sexuality. This book gives a profound analysis of intersectionality. It uses great examples to illustrate key points. A definite must read for academics who are in the social sciences: gender studies, sociology, cultural studies.
November 26, 2007
Thought-provoking.
April 2, 2008
Enlightening... but the problems feel so much bigger than some of the (possible) solutions presented here.
May 4, 2008
Brilliant. Still need to read the sections we skipped over though.
June 10, 2011
Urgent and deeply penetrating; Collins argues that the conversation is long overdue and that the restraints keeping America from talking are fickle
July 5, 2013
important and powerful insights. Theoretically informed and dense but written in a way that opens rather than closes discussion and thought. Very intelligent book
September 13, 2014
Race, Gender and the Politics of the Body
March 8, 2015
Read excerpts for 20th Century Black Feminist Thought and Practice in the US, Fall 2013.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews