Bounded Desirability: How Anti-Blackness Shapes Interracial Intimacy Among and Between Queer Men of Color

• In Event: Open Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 6: Sexuality, Desire, and Queer Identity

Abstract

While studies have examined how race and racism operate in interracial intimacy between Whites and non-Whites, we still know little about how they influence interracial dating patterns between two non-White individuals with non-normative sexuality. Drawing on 33 interviews with queer men of color, this research investigates how anti-Blackness shapes their dating experiences and the resulting unintended consequences. I argue that anti-Blackness does not simply involve liking or disliking Black men. Rather, it manifests through multiple racial boundary formations that hinder the relational opportunities for sex and dating among and between them. I find these boundaries operate in three dimensions: 1) boundaries selectively screen what Black masculinity is perceived as sexually (un)desirable; 2) boundaries reflect public expectations that police dating Black men as socially (un)acceptable; and 3) boundaries along Black/non-Black and White/non-White color lines determine what interracial desires are spatially (un)accessible. These boundaries, intertwined with race, sexuality, gender, and class, are embodied by their selective, avoidant, and fugitive dating practices, further reproducing group divisions and the loss of sexual capital among queer men of color. To understand the construction of desirability among racial and sexual minorities, I offer “matrix of boundary-making” to conceptualize how they navigate non-White intimacy and sexual politics.

Author

• Jyun-Jie Yang, University of California, Davis