ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 explains the mechanisms through which Blackness and queerness are separated in the contexts of interpersonal interaction, identity, institutional interaction, and space to argue that Western society portrays and understands Blackness and queerness as incompatible. Consequently, mainstream Black cultures disenfranchise Black queer and trans folks, while mainstream queer cultures disenfranchise people of color. For Black men, maintaining a healthy sense of self in such an environment can be difficult, as few have the social resources necessary to overcome the cultural barriers that prevent their queerness and Blackness from interlocking into a single cohesive sense of self. To cope, Black men who have sex with men often privilege one identity over the other, seeing themselves as “black then gay,” while others separate their private identity as gay men from their public identity as Black men. Social institutions, too, present extraordinary barriers to queer men of color – and negotiating them with intersecting minority identities “produces a new set of structured choices and survival strategies.” As such, spaces generally deemed safe for Black communities or LGBT communities may not be safe for queer Black folks. In such spaces, Black gay men must often reshape themselves in ways that minimize sexual or racial identification.
