Offering unique insights for each day of the year, an inspirational collection of meditations presents words of wisdom and empowerment for African-American lesbians and gays struggling to cope with both homophobia and racism. Original.

Respecting the Soul: Daily Reflections for Black Lesbians and Gays

Politics & Social Sciences

Boykin, Keith

Social Sciences

Avon/Books

In organizing the 1993 March on Washington for gay and lesbian rights, leaders of the gay community consciously paralleled Martin Luther King's historic 1963 March on Washington and proclaimed their mission was "a simple matter of justice." In response, black leaders and ministers across the country challenged any comparison between blacks and gays as offensive and irrational. In One More River to Cross, Keith Boykin clarifies the relationship between blacks and gays in America by portraying the "common ground" lives of those who are both black and gay. Against a historical backdrop of civil rights and the black experience in America, Boykin interviews Baptist ministers, gay political leaders, and other black gays and lesbians on issues of faith, family, discrimination, and visibility to determine what differences-- real and imagined-- separate the two communities. Boykin points to evidence of African and precolonial same-sex behavior, as well as figures like James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin, to dispel the myth that homosexuality is a "white thang," while his research suggests that blacks are less homophobic than whites, despite the rhetoric of rap and religion. With stories from his own experience as well as that of other black gays and lesbians, Boykin targets gay racism and black homophobia and suggests that conservative forces have substituted the common language of racism for homophobia in order to prevent a potentially powerful coalition of blacks and gays. By portraying what it means to be black and gay in America, One More River to Cross offers an extraordinary window into a community that challenges this country's acceptance of its minorities, both racial and sexual.

One More River to Cross

DOUBLEDAY

In the aftermath of the historic 1993 March on Washington for gay and lesbian rights, Keith Boykin, in One More River to Cross, clarifies the relationship between blacks and gays in America by portraying the "common ground" lives of those who are both black and gay. Against a backdrop of civil rights and the black experience in America, Boykin interviews Baptist ministers, gay political leaders, and other black gays and lesbians on issues of faith, family, discrimination, and visibility to determine what differences--real and imagined--separate the two communities. Boykin points to evidence of African and precolonial same-sex behavior, as well as figures like James Baldwin and Bayard Rustin, to dispel the myth that homosexuality is a "white thang," while his research suggests that blacks are less homophobic than whites, despite the rhetoric of rap and religion. With stories from his own experience as well as that of other black gays and lesbians, Boykin targets gay racism and black homophobia and suggests that conservative forces have substituted the common language of racism for homophobia in order to prevent a potentially powerful coalition of blacks and gays. By portraying what it means to be black and gay, One More River to Cross offers an extraordinary window into a community that challenges this country's acceptance of its minorities, both racial and sexual.

One More River to Cross: Black & Gay in America

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Why Does Everything Have to Be About Race?: 25 Arguments That Won't Go Away

Bold Type Books

A Cold Civil War has engulfed the nation. After a deadly pandemic, shocking incidents of police brutality, a racial justice crisis, and the fall of a dangerous demagogue, America remains more divided than at any time in decades. At the heart of this national crisis is the fear of a darkening America--a country in which there is no longer a predominant white majority. As the Republican Party has lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections, its leaders have incited white Americans in a last-ditch race against time to stop the advance of a new, multiracial emerging majority. Keith Boykin, long time political commentator, has watched this white resentment consume the GOP over the course of a life in politics, activism, and journalism. He has also observed the divisions among Democrats, as white progressives have postponed demands for full racial equity, while Black voters have often been too forgiving of party leaders who have failed to deliver. America can no longer avoid its long overdue reckoning with the past, Boykin argues. With the familiarity of personal experience and the acuity of historical insight, Boykin urges us to fight racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia, and save the union, not just by making Black lives matter, but by making Black lives equal.

Race Against Time: The Politics of a Darkening America