Black sexuality studies.

The author reviews prominent scholarly perspectives on black sexuality, highlighting essays on the construction of black female sexual identity and representations in the 19th century, contemporary perspectives on race and sexuality, black feminist examinations of lynching and sexual stereotypes against black men, and black queer studies. One might argue, that so-called black sexuality has become a primary lens through and by which questions of sex, race, gender, class, and identity are discussed and debated universally, Reid-Pharr argues, noting that the study of sexuality tends to call into question many of the presumably ancient ways in which people have thought through and talked about black identity. If sexuality is dynamic and sensitive to historical change, then it follows that the same may be true of any number of the forms used to think about community, identity and culture, including race. Following the essay, a bibliography of recommended reading, a chronology of events from 1662 to 1970, and a glossary are presented.