About the Book
Reflections on the ways discriminatory hiring practices and racist ad campaigns seep into American life
Why hate Abercrombie? In a world rife with human cruelty and oppression, why waste your scorn on a popular clothing retailer? The rationale, Dwight A. McBride argues, lies in "the banality of evil," or the quiet way discriminatory hiring practices and racist ad campaigns seep into and reflect malevolent undertones in American culture.
McBride maintains that issues of race and sexuality are often subtle and always messy, and his compelling new book does not offer simple answers. Instead, in a collection of essays about such diverse topics as biased marketing strategies, black gay media representations, the role of African American studies in higher education, gay personal ads, and pornography, he offers the evolving insights of one black gay male scholar.
As adept at analyzing affirmative action as dissecting Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, McBride employs a range of academic, journalistic, and autobiographical writing styles. Each chapter speaks a version of the truth about black gay male life, African American studies, and the black community. Original and astute, Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch is a powerful vision of a rapidly changing social landscape.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments PrefaceIntroduction: The New Black Studies, or beyond the Old "Race Man" Part I Queer Black Thought1 Straight Black Studies 2 Why I Hate Abercrombie & Fitch 3 It's a White Man's World: Race in the Gay Marketplace of Desire Part II Race and Sexuality on Occasion4 On Race, Gender, and Power: The Case of Anita Hill 5 Feel the Rage: A Personal Remembrance of the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising ix6 Ellen's Coming Out: Media and Public Hype 7 Af?rmative Action and White Rage Part III Straight Black Talk8 Speaking the Unspeakable: On Toni Morrison, African American Intellectuals, and the Uses of Essentialist Rhetoric 9 Cornel West and the Rhetoric of Race-Transcending 10 Can the Queen Speak? Sexuality, Racial Essentialism, and the Problem of Authority Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
About the Author :
Dwight A. McBride is chair of the department of African American studies and associate professor of African American studies, English, and communication studies at Northwestern University. He is the author of Impossible Witnesses: Truth, Abolitionism, and Slave Testimony, and the editor of James Baldwin Now (both available from NYU Press), as well as coeditor of Black Like Us: A Century of Lesbian, Gay, and Bi-Sexual African American Fiction.
Review :
"Possibly the best title of the season."--Books to Watch out For A fair warning from an intelligent, well-informed writer --Alter Magazine "McBride's heady collection is an accessible think piece, starting with its agreeable title and its pointed essay of the same name." --Time Out New York "This collection breaks new ground for contemporary cultural criticism. McBride's look at homophobia in traditional African-American studies is an emphatic but penetrating critique of the discipline, and his explication of the ghettoization of black men in gay male porn is truly original work with ramifications well outside of queer studies." --Publishers Weekly "McBride's prose is smart, on-target, and very readable. These essays are not simply illuminating, but some of the most eye-opening commentaries on gay culture to be published in years." --Between the Lines "This is one thought-provoking book." -- HX/HOMO XTRA"Dwight A. McBride writes eloquently about the issues of race and homosexuality." --Philadelphia Gay News "McBridge expends more intellectual energy justifying his dislike of the popular clothing chain than perhaps any other person on the planet." --Evenings Out Chronicle "Eloquent collection...engagingly- and, for an academic, unorthodoxly- autobiographical." --San Francisco Bay Time "McBride's volume is a provacative and wide ranging exploration of a range of issues relating to race and sexuality."--Bay Area Reporter "The book's namesake essay- a scathingly detailed and systematic study of the history, advertising practices, and hiring policies that comprise the "cult of Abercrombie"- makes the collection a mindblowing must-read...timely, disconcerting, and riveting in a way that academic writing should be, but rarely is."--Girlfriends "Working across cultural studies, gay and lesbian studies, and race, ethnicity, and feminist studies, McBride attempts to ponder, address, and, where possible, rescue both African American studies and queer theory from the pitfalls of ignoring each other. This project is admirable to the extent that, not unlike black feminists a decade or more ago, scholars and intellectuals of McBride's generation refuse to make choices between race and sexuality- especially when that sexuality is considered deviant." --GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies"A thrilling, imaginative, and brilliant reading of contemporary cultural politics from one of the freshest voices in the field today. Dwight McBride's graceful prose, sharp wit, and sound judgments leap from every page. His essays sparkle with abundant intelligence--and a striking personal investment--as they lead the reader through a complex array of ideas, practices, and situations without losing sight of the ultimate intellectual and political liberation at which they aim. Bravo!" --Michael Eric Dyson, author of The Michael Eric Dyson Reader "McBride has emerged as one of the most eloquent public voices in both queer studies and black studies. In this wide-ranging book--written with intelligence, passion, and humor--he brings the insights of each field to the blind spots of the other. We all have something to learn from him." --Michael Warner, Rutgers University
