American Soundcheck - The JAS Podcast

Too often taken as given, “black homophobia” is a recent cultural construct requiring careful scrutiny. Perpetuating anti-black racism, the notion has spread beyond measure during the decade-long transatlantic campaign against homophobic hate lyrics, now known as “Stop Murder Music.” Ignoring a longer radical tradition of queer interracialism, white gay activists and journalists have repeatedly expressed their individual outrage, foreclosing multiracial collective solutions. This lecture argues that the direct-action techniques and righteous rhetorics inherited from early AIDS-era street theatre frequently disregard its most important lessons in leadership development, coalition-building, and empowerment, as well as those of the African-American civil rights movement.