Rhiannon Bacon’s Reviews > No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies > Status Update

"Blackness unravels the teleology of man."

"Blackness unravels the teleology of man."

"This was a time when 'queer' was a term being mobilized and emerging in academic discourse. The term 'queer' troubled lesbian and gay studies, as it asked the field to account for more than nonnormative sexualities. Queer named compulsory heterosexuality, a result of nuanced interlocking of webs of power that relied on patriarchy and a rigid gender binary."

"I open with my own personal story about my experience as a black trans man in a lesbian space as a jumping off point to think more seriously about the ways in which trans--as identity, trope, analytic--might be a productive way to trouble the waters of black sexual and gendered relations. More specifically, I want to explore trans as a productive site of possibility..."

"Contemporary scholars tend to conflate identity with oppression and thus see the former as something that must be overcome, ultimately reproducing colorblind logics while making way for the triumphant progress narratives of liberalism. Ernesto Martinez critiques what he calls "antirealist" stances that understand racialized personhood as only and necessarily a form of subjection."

"Here I want to propose a Black/queer rhizomatic agencement as well as demonstrate a Black/queer rhizomatic way of seeing and saying. In nature, rhizomes arise from underground or underwater connections/roots/routes that are neither limited to one place nor destined to go in only one direction. The rhizomatic thus represents a queer temporality and sociality that is processual... Form rhizomes and not roots."

"John D'Emilio points out that the riots at the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, while holding mythic status as the turning point in the gay liberation movement, were barely noticed by most of the country and did not result in sweeping policy change. The 1990s, he argues, saw the symbolism of Stonewall manifest in material gains for queers in the areas of representation (print, TV, film), same-sex corporate benefits..."