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

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. (June)