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Black Gay Man: Essays
by Robert F. Reid-Pharr (Foreword: Samuel R. Delany)
Product Group: Book
Publisher: NYU Press (2001-04-01)
ISBN: 0814775039
EAN: 9780814775035
Dewy Decimal #: 305.3896642
Paperback: 208 pages
Release Date: 2001-04-01
SKU: 080227012
Condition: Used: Good
Comments: This First Printing, Ex-Library copy is in good condition. There is a Library Pocket on the front-end paper with the price cut-off at the top. Sticker on copyright page. Otherwise, No visible markings, highlights, underlining, tears to text. Tight spine. Top fore-edge has library stamp. No Dust Jacket. Soft Cover has sticker on bottom spine. Moderate shelf/edge wear. Very interesting reading copy, worth having at an affordable price. (L9-1)
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
"Startling and provocative. . . . Reid-Pharr presents a cogent analysis that combines the personal with the political, the intellectual with the emotional and the erotic. . . . Reid-Pharr's ability to move these works-and their themes-from the limited analysis of the academy into a broader realm of lived experience and social context that makes them, as well as Reid-Pharr's own thoughts, vital and genuinely consequential." -Publisher's Weekly At turns autobiographical, political, literary, erotic, and humorous, Black Gay Man will spoil our preconceived notions of not only what it means to be black, gay and male but also what it means to be a contemporary intellectual. Both a celebration of black gay male identity as well as a powerful critique of the structures that allow for the production of that identity, Black Gay Man introduces the eloquent new voice of Robert Reid-Pharr in cultural criticism. At once erudite and readable, the range of topics and positions taken up in Black Gay Man reflect the complexity of American life itself. Treating subjects as diverse as the Million Man March, interracial sex, anti-Semitism, turn of the century American intellectualism as well as literary and cultural figures ranging from Essex Hemphill and Audre Lorde to W.E.B. DuBois, Frantz Fanon and James Baldwin, Black Gay Man is a bold and nuanced attempt to question prevailing ideas about community, desire, politics and culture. Moving beyond critique, Reid-Pharr also pronounces upon the promises of a new America. With the publication of Black Gay Man, Robert Reid-Pharr is sure to take his place as one of this country's most exciting and challenging left intellectuals.
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Customer Reviews
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Lucid and arresting arguments
Rating  (5)
Date: 2005-01-02
3 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
Although Reid-Pharr's book is marred by an odd, initial instance of racism and classicism where he pejoratively depicts a white lover as ugly, lower classed and pitiable (warning: if such an instance of objectification was levied by a white man for a black man in an academic publication we would surely take far more issue), these essays, while not original in scope or argumentation, go a long way towards solidifying the issues that many liberal wealthy, nicely turned-out black gay intellectuals may face.
One is quite saddened with the way that these essays represent a dangerous trend to publish a book of previously printed essays as a book without sufficient thematic coherency. There is, after all, no truly focused tie for all of these disparate arguments besides the weak ad hominems of framing these thoughts under a headline that is so often seen in personal ads (BGM).
The equally wonderful Dwight McBride may well do better in his forthcoming collection of essays. However, with the genius of these black gay critics blazing academe, one yearns for truly substantive book-length studies beyond their first books (which were rewrites, to some extent, of their dissertations). Edited volumes or collected academic essays pale in comparison with substantive, focused research with original thought based on careful methodological engagement of primary sources along with closer analyses of texts and media.
Too often the arguments in this collection of essays traffic in the polemical at a time when evidence for claims and subtle challenges to hyper-politicized critiques are so sorely needed in discussions of black identity and sexuality.
But, alas, because the previous reviewer was so obviously scorned (and this reviewer's writing in this online review is much too sophisticated for him or her to be complaining about the accessibility of Reid-Pharr's writing) I am giving this collection 5 stars.
And yes, buying it is quite worth the money.
Indeed I am over the age of 13.
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deceptive title from a hyper-academic writer
Rating  (2)
Date: 2001-09-03
13 out of 22 customers found this reveiw helpful
TO NONACADEMIC READERS: Be forewarned! Don't let the title deceive you. This is not a cute, accessible anthology with writings that would interest the average gay, black man. This is not "Brother to Brother" or "Fighting Words." This is a series of musings from a professor that is clearly trying to impress a tenure review board. TO ACADEMIC READERS: Reid-Pharr gives nine chapters which deal with theoretical questions on race, sexuality, and gender. The title is supposed to scare you in its seeming essentialism. The book is divided into three sections: black, gay, and man; but these are arbitrary. Reid-Pharr's project is to critique obtuse, overly "socially-constructed" academic hyperbabble without returning to played-out identity politics. However, this book is just as theoretically burdensome as any other recent cultural studies. Shockingly, the author never once mentions postmodernism and only discusses modernism. A lot of this book seems borrowed: the grotesque picture on the cover smacks of Mapplethorpe; the raunchy sexual tales are influenced by Delaney; the "I'm a lesbian" line comes from Sedgwick and Francisco Valdes. I usually would say all black gay lit. enthusiasts should buy something like this; but I can't say that this time. This book is going to disappoint many. It reminds me of Hazel Carby's weird "Race Men" book.
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