Queer in Black and White

This book analyzes representative works of African American fiction, film, and music in which interracial desire appears in the context of same-sex desire. The author explores ways in which the interracial intersects with queerness, blackness, whiteness, class, and black national identity. She shows that representations of interracial desire do not follow the logic of racial exclusion. Instead they are metaphorical and anti-biological. Rather than diluting race, interracial desire makes race visible. By invoking the interracial, black gay and lesbian artists can remake our conception of blackness. Works considered include Marlon Riggs's film Tongues Untied; James Baldwin's novel Another Country; Ann Shockley's novel Loving Her; Cheryl Dunye's "mockumentary" The Watermelon Woman; and Me'Shell NdegéOcello's album Plantation Lullabies.