Queer of Color Critique

Queer of Color Critique , also called Queer of Color Theory or Black Queer Studies , describes a sub-area of gender research or queer studies . The focus is on the similarities between black homosexual women and men affected by Multiple Discrimination.

definition

Definition according to Roderick A. Ferguson: “An interrogat [ion] of social formations as the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class, with particular interest in how those formations correspond with and diverge from nationalist ideals and practices. Queer of color analysis is a heterogeneous enterprise made up of women of color feminism, materialist analysis, poststructuralist theory, and queer critique. "

meaning

This designation serves the purpose of counteracting the danger of equating discrimination between black and homosexual women and men, which is perceived by those concerned as completely different, but often as similar in public. They want to give more weight to their own concerns, to point out their lack of recognition as doubly discriminated persons and to overcome the separation between and division into different fringe groups within a heteronormative society. The name and the public debate around it are also aimed at highlighting social and health problems within the queer of color community, such as the increased risk of black homosexuals developing AIDS or their difficulty in finding well-paid employment. Queer of Color Critique is thus also a form of social criticism.

history

The origins of the Queer of Color Critique lie in the sub-disciplines of queer theory and racism research . In addition, there are strong Marxist bonds in the political queer-of-color movement. In the course of the progressive feminist and civil rights movements in the USA in the 1960s and 1970s, there was increasing awareness of the double discrimination of black women and their outsider role both in the black community and in the feminist movement. With the increasing importance of civil rights movements to strengthen the rights of gays and lesbians, the perception of phenomena of marginalization of colored people and of open and hidden racism within the queer community also increased. This was rooted in the belief of the majority of the movement's members that homophobia was the main problem that had to be combated. The fact that black homosexuals perceive homophobia in a completely different way was often ignored and the queer people of color were often even urged to "decide" for a dominant identity, i.e. primarily homosexual or primarily colored, whereby the overlapping of the discrimination factors race, Sex, gender and class has been marginalized. Lesbian black women and gay black men, sometimes also Latinos or Asians, were in some cases openly excluded from queer communities, which ultimately led to the establishment of their own movement, the “Queer People of Color”. Today they are not formally excluded from black or homosexual movements and associations, but they still experience various forms of marginalization and discrimination within the communities.

Important representatives

Well-known representatives of the queer-of-color authoring scene include Ragan Fox, Barbara Smith, James Baldwin and Festus Claudius McKay .

When analyzing literary texts, it is assumed that the whole of a character must always be taken into account: gender, ethnic and social status as well as sexuality, as these influence the perception of the character by the other characters in the plot. A complicated construct of preconceived ideas and conscious and unconscious prejudices emerges. Literary texts that deal with Queer of Color Critique are naturally almost always politically explosive and expressive. Therefore, the literary stylistic devices to achieve this expressiveness are mainly those of provocation and polemics. Even more than in other genres of literature, the authors of the texts of the Queer of Color Critique are themselves black homosexuals.

Sample poem “Fagot” by Ragan Fox

Fagot (Or, For Gay Boys Who Have Considered Rainbows When Suicide Wasn't Enough) is a poem by the "gay slam poet" Ragan Fox. He uses it a chiasmus to Ntozake Shanges Choreopoem For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf by reversed its title and the motives of the poem into its opposite and makes a so-called crossover. The obviously negative connotation of the title “Fagot”, which means something like “fagot” in German, represents a stylistic device of provocation and polemics. However, the intertextuality that runs through the entire poem creates a controversial parallel between discrimination Black dragged in Shange's poem and Gay in Fox's work.

literature

Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, Editors (1982): All the women are white, all the blacks are men, but some of us are brave: Black women's studies , New York: Feminist Press 1982, XXXIV, 398 pages, 13th reprint 2010, ISBN 978-0-91267-095-9
Roderick A. Ferguson (2004): Aberrations in Black. Toward a Queer of Color Critique , Minneapolis 2004, ISBN 0-8166-4128-5
Chong-suk Han (2007): They don't want to cruise your type: Gay men of color and the racial politics of exclusion . In: Social Identities: Journal of Race, Nation, and Culture , Volume 13, Issue 1, January 2007, pages 51-67.
Gary Edward Holcomb, Editor (2007): Claude McKay. Code name Sasha. Queer Black Marxism and the Harlem Renaissance , Gainesville 2007, ISBN 978-0-8130-3450-8
Sabrina Alimahomed (2009): Thinking outside the rainbow. Women of color redefining queer politics and identity , in: Social Identities , Volume 16, Issue 2, March 2010, pages 151-168.
Karma R. Chavez (2010): Poetic Polemics. A (Queer Feminist of Color) Reflection on a Gay Slam Poet , in: Text and Performance Quarterly , Volume 30, Issue 4, October 2010, pages 444–452.
Peggy Piesche (2012): “Introduction: Against Silence. Diasporic networks of black women in transnational encounters. A tribute to Peggy Piesche ”. In: "Your silence does not protect you." Audre Lorde and the Black Women's Movement in Germany . Edited by Peggy Piesche. Orlanda Frauenverlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-936937-95-4 , pages 7-16.

Individual evidence

^ Roderick A. Ferguson (2004): Aberrations in Black. Toward a Queer of Color Critique , Minneapolis 2004, ISBN 0-8166-4128-5
↑ Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith, editors (1982): All the women are white, all the blacks are men, but some of us are brave: Black women's studies , New York: Feminist Press 1982, XXXIV, 398 pages, 13th reprint 2010, ISBN 978-0-91267-095-9
↑ Chong-suk Han (2007): They don't want to cruise your type: Gay men of color and the racial politics of exclusion . In: Social Identities: Journal of Race, Nation, and Culture , Volume 13, Issue 1, January 2007, pages 51-67.
↑ Sabrina Alimahomed (2009): Thinking Outside the rainbow. Women of color redefining queer politics and identity , in: Social Identities , Volume 16, Issue 2, March 2010, pages 151-168.

[1] Roderick A. Ferguson (2004): Aberrations in Black. Toward a Queer of Color Critique , Minneapolis 2004, ISBN 0-8166-4128-5

[2] Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott and Barbara Smith, editors (1982): All the women are white, all the blacks are men, but some of us are brave: Black women's studies , New York: Feminist Press 1982, XXXIV, 398 pages, 13th reprint 2010, ISBN 978-0-91267-095-9

[3] Chong-suk Han (2007): They don't want to cruise your type: Gay men of color and the racial politics of exclusion . In: Social Identities: Journal of Race, Nation, and Culture , Volume 13, Issue 1, January 2007, pages 51-67.

[4] Sabrina Alimahomed (2009): Thinking Outside the rainbow. Women of color redefining queer politics and identity , in: Social Identities , Volume 16, Issue 2, March 2010, pages 151-168.