Books.org participates in affiliate programs including Bookshop.org and the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. We may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Overview
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.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Boykin, who is black and gay, came out of the closet in 1991 at age 25 while attending Harvard Law School, then went on to serve as special media assistant to President Clinton (1993-1994) as a liaison with the African American and homosexual communities. His important, bridge-building report stakes out common ground between blacks and gays, who share a burden of fighting oppression, negative stereotypes and internalized self-hatred. Boykin discovered an enormous amount of denialboth by heterosexual blacks who deny the existence of large numbers of black lesbians and gays, and by the white homosexual community, which, he says, excludes or patronizes African Americans, minimizing their contributions to the gay political movement and reinforcing straight society's prejudice. He constructively airs such issues as the black community's failure to address AIDS-related problems, the hostility gay interracial couples face, and the pervasive silence and denial concerning homosexuality by both Christian and Muslim ministers and congregations. Boykin is executive director of the National Black Gay and Lesbian Leadership Forum. (Sept.)Library Journal
Political activist Boykin records the experiences of black lesbians and gay men in this report, exploring their interactions with the white gay and straight black communities. (LJ 10/15/96)Randall Kenan
One More River to Cross does an admirable job of cataloguing the issues and dynamics that affect African-Americans of the same-sex-orientation vein. Boykin, who is the executive director of the Black Gay and Leadership Forum, hits or at least glances off all the topics involved with being black and gay of lesbian. It's a damned difficult task. Yet One More River to Cross is nothing if not lucid.— The Advocate