Money Shot: The Wild Nights and Lonely Days Inside the Black Porn Industry

by Lawrence C. Ross

Money Shot chronicles the African American porn industry's steady rise to the mainstream. Lawrence Ross, a prominent journalist and lecturer, details a year in the life of porn star Lexington Steele, whose eleven-inch penis and 75,000 per-movie-fee made him one of the most famous figures in the porn industry. Beginning and ending with Lexington Steele as the book's narrative thread, Ross conducts hundreds of interviews with college professors, industry insiders, and porn stars themselves, providing an insider's view of the often dangerous and disheartening reality of the black porn industry. His research uncovers a world fraught with sexual and racial politics. He describes an AIDS crisis that threatens the lives and careers of several black porn stars, the racism that implicitly prohibits interracial sex scenes in porn films, the moral implications of black female porn stars working as escorts to wealthy African Americans, and much more. Money Shot humanizes those who participate in a largely inhumane occupation—it is a cautionary tale for those who thought that what they are seeing on the screen is simply sex.

Genres: Sexuality

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 25, 2007

About the author

Lawrence Ross attended both the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Los Angeles, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in History. Ross also has a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in screenwriting from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.

Ross began his writing career in the mid 1990s as the managing editor of Rap Sheet magazine, the west coast’s first hip hop magazine. He’d then move to the Los Angeles Independent newspapers, where as a reporter, he covered city government and community issues in Los Angeles, Hollywood, Culver City, and West Hollywood.

Ross’s first book, The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities, was published by Kensington Books in 2000. The first book written about all nine African American fraternities and sororities, the Divine Nine is a Los Angeles Times, and Essence magazine best seller. As a result, Ross has lectured at over 500 colleges and universities, speaking on issues of fraternalism, student development, and fraternity and sorority hazing. He’s written commentaries, and has been interviewed, by The Root, The Grio, Los Angeles Times, the BBC, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, MSNBC, CNN, and other publications.

In 2001, Ross’ second book, The Ways of Black Folks: A Year in the Life of a People was selected as a “Fall Must Read” by the National Association of Black Journalists. The Ways of Black Folks chronicled Ross’ travels to England, France, Ghana, Brazil, Jamaica, and Canada, as he searched for the commonalities in the African diaspora experience. His two novels, Friends With Benefits and Skin Game, were both chosen by Doubleday’s Black Expressions Book Club. And Ross’ fifth book, Money Shot: The Wild Nights and Lonely Days in the Black Porn Industry was published by Running Press, and is the first book written about African Americans in the adult film industry.

In early 2016, Ross’s sixth book, Blackballed: The Black & White Politics of Race on America’s Campuses is being published by St. Martin’s Press. Blackballed explores the present and historical issues of racism on hundreds of American college campuses, and how that ties into today’s #BlackLivesMatter campaign.

Ross lives in Los Angeles with his wife, April, and their son Langston.

Reviews

[Mavis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read and changes your perception about the background of the people that are in this industry. Surprisingly, most have college degrees, and for various reasons choose this as their job and / or career path.

[Darrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overview/ interview series of African Americans in the porn industry

[Suzette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book. Sad people take this route to make a living.

[Janeeta]

Just open