Sunday, August 12, 2012

Playing with Sex, Power, and Race: Did You Know That There Are "Plantation Retreats" Where Black People Go to Serve Their White "Masters?"


Those who have loved and dated across the color line have to negotiate the realities of race in our society, and by extension, its impact on their relationships. For many, this is done through explicit conversations. For others, these dialogues come implicitly, through gestures, and taken for granted shared assumptions. 

But how many folks actually talk about how race impacts their own sexuality, attraction, physicality, or notions of the erotic? 

We live in a society that is structured around many different hierarchies of power, authority, and difference. As Foucault brilliantly observed, Power is not sitting out there in the ether, an abstraction that we just talk about in philosophy classes. Power acts through and upon bodies. Certain people are racialized in American society for example. Their bodies are locations of power--and yes resistance. Likewise, certain types of bodies are marked as "normal," while others are deemed "different" or "abnormal." 

The "popular" imagination holds many assumptions about particular types of bodies. The black male body is something to be policed, controlled, and feared. It is both envied and despised. The Asian female body is "erotic" and "submissive." The black female body alternates between being fecund, always available, and out of control, while simultaneously being marked as "masculine," asexual, and unattractive. Latinas are "hot" and "sexy." White bodies of a certain type are taken as the baseline for what is considered "beautiful" or "normal." 

Ironically, the bodies of black and brown people which are considered beautiful or attractive by the white gaze are judged as such either by how "different" they are from white norms (the exotic or savage) or how close these racialized bodies--almost like impostors or stand-ins--are to the normalized white body.

The very language we use to discuss race, the physical, and the sexual, is a quotidian example of Power in action. But, how are matters complicated when a significant part of a given person's sexuality, and sense of the erotic, is centered on playing around with the dynamics surrounding dominance and submission? 

Consider the following passage from the Colorlines article "Playing with Race":
Contrary to popular notions, BDSM is not about abuse. It’s consensual and trusting and people refer to it as “play” (as in “I want to play with you”). The point of BDSM is not sexual intercourse. In fact, when Williams recalls her first experience as a masochist seven years ago, she says she met her partner, a white man, at a bar and “fell in love at first sight.” They made their way back to his hotel. “For the first time I felt someone could see who I really was.” And that was someone who found it erotic to be a submissive to her partner. 
In recent years, Williams has added another element to her repertoire as a masochist. She’s begun to engage in what is called “race play” or “racial play”—that is getting aroused by intentionally using racial epithets like the word “nigger” or racist scenarios like a slave auction. 
Race play is being enjoyed in the privacy of bedrooms and publicly at BDSM parties, and it’s far from just black and white. It also includes “playing out” Nazi interrogations of Jews or Latino-on-black racism, and the players can be of any racial background and paired up in a number of ways (including a black man calling his black girlfriend a “nigger bitch”). White master seeking black slave, however, seems the more popular of the combinations.
I could not engage is such types of role-playing. My personal politics would not allow it; my libido would not respond.

That is my choice. I do not deny others their pleasure. 


However, as someone interested in the relationship between race, politics, and racial ideologies, I am fascinated by how individuals negotiate white supremacy and Power. 

Are people like Williams or Mollena more "evolved" and "progressive" than those of us who cannot decouple the realities and burdens of race from their bodies and psyches in the present? Alternatively, could this deep sense of both owning and living in a racialized body, be turned into a location for pleasure and catharsis:
Vi Johnson, the black matriarch of BDSM, has presented on race play at kinky conferences and she believes the appeal is different for each person. “When you’re being sexually stimulated, you’re not thinking that what’s stimulating you is a racist image, ” she says. “You’re just getting turned on.”
So, for some, she says, race play is about playing with authority and for others, it might be humiliation. 
Well-known sexuality and SM educator Midori, who is Japanese and German, often presents her theory that humiliation in BDSM is linked to self-esteem. Take the woman who likes it when her boyfriend calls her a “slut,” Midori says. Perhaps the woman internalized the idea that “good girls don’t,” but she enjoys her sexuality. Because the boyfriend sees her in all her complexity, Midori says, when he calls her a slut, “he is freeing her of the social expectations of having to be modest.” 
That’s different than having some stranger (and jerk) calling you a slut. The stranger doesn’t see the full woman. It’s similar with race play, Midori says. By focusing, for example, on a black man’s body, while he’s bound as a slave, she’s bolstering his own perception of himself as strong and powerful... 
Her workshop demonstrations have included full auction scenes mimicking those of the Old South. In them, she is the plantation mistress inspecting a black man for “purchase.” He’s in shackles and “I slap him on his face and push him down on the ground, make him lick my shoes,” she says, emphasizing that she only does the demonstration after the “psychological” talk. 
In the interest of transparency, I am a sex positive person (at least according to the survey on yourmorals.org). In many ways, I am also a bit of a libertine and a hedonist who is comfortable in both exclusive and open relationships. I also have certain predilections and tastes that more "vanilla" folks could find "kinky" or "different." Ultimately, I am just myself, and do not know how to pretend to be anyone else. 

I am also full of contradictions and complications as sexuality and the erotic are not neatly bounded constructs (for example, I do not like watching interracial porn where white men have aggressive sex with black women as chattel slavery looms too large in my mind; however, I have no problems watching black men have aggressive sex with white women). I have also dated many women from a range of racial backgrounds: I love women; I love variety.

I share those details not to titillate; rather, because while I am rendering a judgement of sorts, I would not want to sound "judgmental." The difference is a subtle, but nonetheless, an important one.

One of the questions I will be asking Viola Johnson from the Carter Johnson Leather Library when I interview her in the next few weeks (fingers crossed) is how do we separate more "healthy" types of race play from those encounters that are rooted in disdain for the Other and white supremacy. Are these just inter-personal contracts or do these types of sexual relationships gain power (and are made erotic) precisely because of how they signal to larger societal taboos?

If the website Fetlife is any indication, there is apparently a not insubstantial number of people who engage in sexual roleplaying and BDSM using the motif of chattel slavery in the antebellum South. A cursory review of the member profiles suggests that many of these people are white supremacists. This is apparently not a deterrent to the black men and women who want to "serve" these white masters. 


Here a white "slave owning" master offers some insight on race play and "plantation retreats": 
My major kink-interest is in chattel slave-ownership in today's world but following the historical models of 8,000 years of historical slave-ownership tradition (from Greek-Roman through modern day)...along with everything that might relate to it (which sometimes can go pretty far into the realm of BDSM activities, depending on the partner). I'm very knowlegable in the field of historical slavery.
Some of my other non-kink interests include history and philosophy, classic cars, music, science, singing and writing lyrics, architecture, comparative culture, language, reading and counseling.. 
I get a lot of questions about "Plantation Retreat"...so here are some basic facts:
My goal in creating and hosting Plantation Retreat is to provide a safe and welcoming, private place (and opportunity) for White Masters and plantation slaves/niggers to meet and explore their mutual fantasies. I get a lot of questions and answer many individual questions. To simplify things...here is some general basic information: 
The gathering lasts for up to 2 weeks this year, with the main gathering around the 4th of July...folks can stay as long or as short a time as they want (some stay even longer). Masters can stay at the compound here or in a hotel if they want to (as can any personal slaves that they bring with them or any other slave that is ordered to do so). 
Slaves arriving on their own stay here and are considered (and protected) as property of the plantation or my personal property. 
Slaves sign up for a specific length of service. Slaves can specify what their limits are or that they will serve in any way the Master/guests desire. Sex is not required, but depends on individual choice (as do other activities). Most Masters desire to use slaves sexually in addition to normal domestic services. Some slaves are used only for hard labor. A slave's assignments and duties are based on its experience and ability-level (some require whipping or punishment). Masters have their own king or queen bed (up to 5 available); slaves sleep where they are told to sleep (unless they are ordered into a Master's bed and allowed to sleep there). Normally a slave sleeps at the foot of a Master's bed, but some can be chained or caged elsewhere. 
The minimum requirement for slaves is that they be obedient and respectful of all Masters and work to give the Masters and enjoyable time. This can be anything from preparing and serving drinks and meals, doing housework or yard work, to providing sexual relief on demand, to hard labor in the compound (depending on the slave's previously-stated limitations). Slaves should expect Masters to be totally comfortable and free in using humiliating or degrading racist speech in referring to or speaking to mud-slaves. It's not all punishment and misery for slaves...there is plenty of time for camaraderie and playful fun also. Some slaves even form a brotherly bond with the other slaves that serve with them. Masters also form lasting bonds and friendships based on their mutual interests and sharing slaves. 
It's just a small friendly gathering of White Masters at my house/compound....being served by mud-slaves as might have been in a modern version of slave-days. one might call it a situation of consensual non-consent/slavery. Slaves can set their limits and the time they will be in service as slaves in advance.... and also what they expect to learn and experience from the experience. The more that a slave lets me know about itself in advance, the better I can guide its growth from the experience.
Backstage racism mates with BDSM, the eroticization of the black body, and finds a place online through a variant of cyber-racism. Amazing. We do in fact live in interesting times.

White supremacy is a mental illness. Western (and global) society is sick with it. All of us, across the color line, have been impacted by white supremacy and white racism. But who are we to judge how adults in a consensual relationship decide to work through its pain and ugliness? 

As is per our tradition at WARN, here are some concluding questions. 

Have any of you engaged in race play? For those of you in inter-racial relationships, how do you negotiate these bigger questions of race and the erotic? If our kinks and sexual predilections are in some way a function of life experience, trauma, early childhood experiences, etc. what happened in the life of a black person who is willing to play a slave for the pleasures of white racists?

41 comments:

Comrade Physioprof said...

Those pictures and descriptions you posted are truly disturbing. I personally couldn't imagine finding any of that sexually arousing.

chaunceydevega said...

@Comrade. quite literally, different strokes for different folks. i can't get my head around it. baffling.

Comrade Physioprof said...

It also seems to me that those claims you quote in your post that this kind of thing is nothing more than some sort of immediate sexual titillation are proven false by the fact that the "plantation" fantasy takes place over multiple days, during which the "master" and "slave" roles are maintained.

chaunceydevega said...

@Comrade. Imagine the mess, true deviance, that would be occurring over several days at one of "these retreats"

National geographic could do a special on it.

VioletCorsica said...

For me, (as a practitioner of BDSM in the kink community, as an anti-racism, anti-sexism activist) BDSM is about making power dynamics in the real world visible where they were not before. Once they are out there, exaggerated, in the open, as a "role" that I'm playing, they are not implicitly assumed to be true all of the time.

Does that help in understanding why someone might want to reenact/enact racist dynamics?

(Also, hey! It's not super cool to talk about sexual minorities as the objects of a national geographic special. That's pretty othering! I'll take that as an invitation to join the conversation.)

chaunceydevega said...

@Violet.

Thanks for chiming in. Always nice to have an inside/expert voice so to speak.

Race as one of the dominant narratives and social structures in this society is already pretty visible and clear. Thus, what are you making visible through race play that was not crystal clear to any thinking, reasonable, reflective person before?

Well call me "uncool." Any black person who gets off being put on an auction block and inspected by white racists deserves all of the national geo profiling they can get. Just being real.

Now, that does not mean they cannot do this, enjoy it, or the like. But, it also does not mean they are exempted from being psychoanalyzed regarding their pathological levels of internalized white supremacy.

What are some of the controversies in the bdsm community about race play? How are the lines being drawn?

Hegem0nycricket said...

If the "slaves" are performing actual labor for the "masters" over an extended period, then the relationship should be governed by state and federal labor and employment laws. Where do we as a society draw the line between work and play?

Black Sage said...

@Comrade, to each his own! I surmise that White women experienced an abundance of sexual inhibition during the era of slavery, perhaps a lot of them still do so secretly today.

chaunceydevega said...

Heg. Great name btw. That would be one hell of an OSHA case. God help those investigators; I would lose it if I showed up to do the investigation on a neo-bdsm plantation.

Priceless.

chaunceydevega said...

@BS. What do you think of these mandingo parties?

http://www.details.com/sex-relationships/sex-and-other-releases/200703/meet-the-mandingos

Aadonis219 said...

As an avid blogger/youtube junkie these images/notions/concepts do not give me pause. Not that I suggest I am completely comfortable with them- however very few things are indeed new "under the sun". Meanwhile as one who has maintained a few interracial relationships over the years I am keenly aware of the complexities involved when navigating the frenzied waters of when both sex and race converge. Keep in mind sex is a basic and primal function and like fear it too is often the driving force behind systematic/ highly coordinated efforts yet it retains very archaic functions.

Sex and self perceived sexual inadequacy are integral to modern racism- at least in my theory. I think this is the first step in both understanding how racism is a manifestation of that fear of sexual non-selection and how it also functions as a power mechanism to prevent said sexual non selection. Given that racism has done so much to keep all things white as such- would sex not be the FIRST means of insuring that all things lily will stay that way? In regards to why some Black persons openly/actively engage in slave for pleasure play-I offer the following - Uncle Ruckus/Clayton Bixby ( self loathing Negro complex). They seek to redeem themselves in the eyes of "Massa" that are afforded to them via BDSM. Dare I also suggest that self perceived penis size may play a part in these shenanigans. Us Negros cannot discuss sexuality and race with out mentioning penis size largely because White people often cannot discuss race and sexuality with out first mentioning penis size.

Black Sage said...

@ChanuceyD,
The issue of race complicates the issue of Power through the attributes generally assigned to each race. This is why the vast majority of Whites, particularly White men, have a problem with a Black man being POTUS. They view him as someone either being out of bounds or out of place and not playing his assigned role, largely due to skin tone. In short and within the realm of Power, not only does President Obama cause some Whites to experience many sleepless nights, but prolong cognitive discord as well.

VioletCorsica said...

(I'll try to talk out my thinking/feeling process here) I don't do race play, but I do bottom in a female body. And sexism and misogyny are part of the "dominant narratives and social structures," right? So (without thinking these situations are identical) I think a lot of the same stuff, about being a member of an oppressed group bottoming to the oppressors, probably applies.

So, for me, when I bottom to a male partner, it's like all of that sexism and misogyny that I deal with all of the time gets called out as being a construct. It's something I chose in that moment. So it gets set aside. By amplifying it in those moments, it makes it less strong in my real life. By setting aside time and space for it, it gets corralled.

I think probably Lacan and Zizek have excellent insights into this process, and desire generally, but I can't think of a particular source. I think fantasy is very different from reality. Women frequently have rape fantasies but don't want to be raped, and suggested that their fantasies mean they would desire this is a whole sexist trope.

So there is a LOT of writing about your questions about the controversies about race play within the community, and it is rapidly becoming my bedtime.

Here are some links to follow:
http://www.mollena.com/race-play/
http://puckerup.com/category/sexoutloud/ (I think you linked to her in the OP)
http://jezebel.com/5447206/sex-ed-best-sex-writing-2010-takes-on-race-play-swinging-and-sexy-dwarfs

"For me, humiliation is a broad-brush full-bore way for me to feel the worst of how I feel about myself, give it away to someone, and have them hold it. [...]

Add to this mix the humiliation of years of racism, oppression, the struggle for identity. Add to this living in a country built by your ancestors and one where, in your parents' memory, your ancestors were living in segregation.

Imagine, instead of covering up that scar, that wound, pulling it open, letting that suppurating pain see the light of day, bare, open and painful, but able to breathe, to heal, and so find peace in surviving it."

More later, I hope.

makheru bradley said...

Looks like a bunch of J. Edgar Hoover's in cowboy hats.

A. Ominous said...

"Those pictures and descriptions you posted are truly disturbing. I personally couldn't imagine finding any of that sexually arousing."

Don't tell me you wouldn't get a little tingle if the star of the show up there on the auction block were a naked *Sista* (say, Judy Pace, c. 1974) instead! laugh

CNu said...

Here now is an active-shooter's wet dream...,

Unknown said...

One of my partners and I engage in what can be considered mild race play. My partner has an Asian fetish. I am Asian. We both enjoy the aesthetic of certain imagery in Japanese animation/manga. I put on wee cat ears and I get to be his "blue-haired Anime cat girl". I get to feel sexy and cute and he gets to play with an image he finds sexually arousing.

In my mind, though, what we engage in is quite far from aspects of sexual play that involve humiliation, power exchange, and stuff like that which come with more slavery-focused/based/historical race play.

AfroerotiK said...

As a member of FetLife and a Black Domme, I can tell you that the number of white men who have submissive fantasies of serving Blacks FAR outweighs the number of Blacks wishing to be submissive to whites. Whites, however, don't advertise, post, brag, or acknowledge it in their public profiles. They have totally benign profiles when it comes to any suggestion of race and then contact me and tell me privately that they want to be my slave and pay for the sins of their whiteness.

I've written quite extensively on it. https://date.afroerotik.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=102

Robert said...

What is important to point out is that fetish and kink-play are explicitly not realities but consensual fantasy role plays, not unlike a tabletop RPG or, better yet, a LARP. All responsible participants recognize the fictional nature of the roles and interactions. The tragedy is when people confuse the roles for reality (e.g. "a woman is playing submissive because woman are meant to be submissive" vs "that person, who is incidentally female, is agreeing to play a submissive role for a specified time and location for the sake of some erotic fun"). If taken literally, yes, BDSM and the race-slave examples given in the article are horrific however the entire point is that they are a consensual role play and NOT a reality. Could we label Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise or any other action film star as a mass murderer simply because they agree to (and probably enjoy) portraying a gun-toting hero in a piece of fiction? Certainly not. The bitter reality is that nobody can choose what turns them on. A well developed and educated fetish community allows people to indulge in their kinks while insuring that the line between consensual fiction and horrific violation is not crossed.

RKR-

chaunceydevega said...

@Aadonis. We come to see our eyes through those of others. How many problems in the black community are caused by a hypermasculine hyper sexualized thug persona that has been internalized as authentically black?

@BS. See Scottie Love's link. Great stuff there.

@Violet. "Imagine, instead of covering up that scar, that wound, pulling it open, letting that suppurating pain see the light of day, bare, open and painful, but able to breathe, to heal, and so find peace in surviving it.""

I don't know. Being black and breathing air in this society every day is surviving enough for me. I don't know if I have the desire or will to do what you bravely describe. Is it cathartic somehow?

@Ai. I agree. Fantasy is okay. But what of fantasies that are laden with historical trauma.

@Scottie. Thanks for the great link/essay. email me, it would be great to do an online q and a if you are so inclined.

@Robert. When are historical realities of the near present/past out of bounds for "fantasy?" What is one person's fantasy is another whole groups reality? Is there a reverse use by date for these scenarios?

Unknown said...

@chaunceydevega : I come from the belief that you can have ANY FANTASY YOU WANT so long as it is in your head. It's fantasy. It requires no consent to have fantasies. Problems arise with the expression of that fantasy outside your head...

...and this is where your partner(s) come in. If everyone involved are consenting adults, even if those fantasies are laden with historical trauma, then it should be ok. People participate in such situations for their own personal reasons and as long as they get out of it what they want out of it to become a happier person, then it is fine. The NEXT problem comes up with the practice of fantasies OUTSIDE of consenting adults...

...and then I think it's not ok.

Everyone needs to be aware of the fantasy vs. reality differences, the consent vs. nonconsent situations and ensure that their expression falls within ethical/moral standards.

Robert said...

@chaunceydevega, I feel your questions are a subset of larger questions of when someone is entitled to take offense and depends on both the visibility of the display and the personal history of the observers. If you had to go out of your way and search a special interest website (e.g. FetLife) to find information regarding a questionable activity, then the participants were being responsible and respectful - they realize that their activities may make other folks uncomfortable and have taken measures to keep it within closed doors. If they posted an ad on the side of a bus, well, then they're inconsiderate bastards who are intending to cause offense.

As I said before, we have no control over what rings our bell. Additionally, sex is an extremely psychologically powerful experience and can be a valuable tool to explore personal issues of identity and empowerment. Not only I but several friends (queer & straight) have used BDSM experiences to reconcile certain violent events in our past relating to abuses of power. Socially correct methods simply would not have worked as well as the "transgressive" methods of the fetish scene. Also, by being a consensual role play and not a reality, the individual can change roles and explore both empowerment and disempowerment - a luxury not afforded in the atrocious reality.

In short (and I apologize for being long-winded, this is not a simple topic), so long as the situation is entirely consensual (with regards to both observers and participants) the question regarding whether the enactment is offensive to non-participants is moot. The freedoms of this country allows even boneheads such as the Southern Baptists and the KKK to preach their ways despite the fact that they are harmful those not involved in those movements. The fetishists at least make efforts to keep to themselves.

Finally, keep up the great work CD! I greatly enjoy reading your blog!

AfroerotiK said...

Here's my take on Mandingo parties.

https://date.afroerotik.com/forum/topic.php?topic_id=113&page=1

Brotha Wolf said...

Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. Then again, considering the kind of nation we live in, it's very unbelievable.

AfroerotiK said...

How is white people wanting to submit to Black people any different than Black people wanting to submit to white people? White people weren't the victims of oppression and slavery in this county. Their consciousness wasn't formed as one of inferiority. White people don't have to deal with the institutionalized racism that Black people do. Their feelings of "inferiority" are not because of hundreds of years of discrimination. Whatever the reason white people seem to feel sexually inferior to Black people, it has nothing to do with their history of enslavement and very real oppression. For Black people to want to replicate slavery in their sexual fantasies is certainly a manifestation of very real racism that has shaped their perception and identity, not some feeling of unworthiness that they create in their heads to make up for imagined guilt.

Anonymous said...

Scottie I bet you just love to get back at those evil white people who oppressed you.

"White supremacy is a mental illness."


No, that would be egalitarianism.

fred c said...

Separating fantasy from reality is an important challenge for any of us, a challenge that lots of people are failing these days.

An example of the failure: Black Americans are fully modern humans in reality, they exhibit the same modern consciousness that the rest of us in the Western Democracies exhibit. But there is a fantasy among some outside observers that Blacks live in some kind of older reality, a "Garden of Eden" state, some kind of running in the jungle thing, like some undiscovered Amazon tribe.

The fantasy longs to share this freedom of spirit that Blacks are perceived to have. To live in a prior reality, free from the constraints of modern life. More ego, less superego, and a good sprinkling of id.

Sad, like so much of what's going on.

Black Sage said...

@ChaunceyD,
To me, these Mandingo parties are simply manifestations of dual purposes. For the White men involved here, they get the opportunity to witness up close and personal, the sexual shellacking of their wives by Black men. I seriously doubt these parties would be happening if in fact there wasn’t a need for them. In other words, the White men that obtain a ringside seat to these acts do so because they themselves are unable to perform at a heightened sexual level in order to satisfy their own wife. Instead, they internalize the event and vicariously supplant themselves in the act, merely wishing that he was involved.

On the other hand, White women have held sexual fantasies and inhibitions regarding Black men in particular for quite some time. How many times have we heard a story regarding White women claiming that they were raped by a Black man? There are no mysteries here. For a woman to have the audacity to ask her husband to watch her get sexual pounded repeatedly by a Black man are truly strong evidence that she thinks less of her White husband’s sexual prowess under the sheets.

As for these Plantation Retreats, it’s simply a nostalgic event for White men to experience the political Power he once held over the Black body during the slave regime era of this country, men and women of course. It was an at-will relationship that was violently thrust upon Black people. They didn’t have a choice and they would most certainly meet death if they resisted. Nothing less, nothing more!

Anonymous said...

I did a lot of experimenting back in my twenties, and yes, race play is one of the things I tried out. And found that I couldn't do, for emotional reasons.

The kind of white man that would be able to do the kind of stuff I was trying to both sexualize and process emotionally just simply does not exist. No white guy (that I've met) is that learned about race relations, and if that learned, he probably wouldn't have the stomach for it. I'd be basically handing him a script and diving into my own head and getting myself off. I'd be using him as a dildo, and any white guy hip enough, deep enough, and safe emotionally enough to do that with... I would NOT want to use as a dildo. Does that make sense?

Rape survivors have been known to use BDSM for processing their feelings about rape in a safe space. My motivations behind race play ran parallel to those. It'd be a little too personal to go into the details. Suffice to say, I've known I've had a kink bone a mile long for years... I'm a happier person now on the far side of adulthood than I was when I was younger.

!&# said...

Thank you for the challenging post.

I'm a white queer cis-gender man. I've never engaged in role playing or kink at this level, but there's still lots of race issues that play out in queer relationships. For a quick if slightly tedious view on this, you might try reading "The Screwball Asses" by Guy Hocquenghem. He is European and in that context the "other" is immigrants from (North) Africa. He describes French queers who project their revolutionary urges onto the bodies of African Arabs who he says are imagined by whites as embodying a wide range of orientalist and bourgeois notions.

One of my close (white female queer) friends for many years had a relationship with a black female queer woman, and they did practice this sort of play. However, it was reversed. The white female was the slave. She described these acts as personally transformative and also extremely (but consensually) traumatizing. Needless to say, these acts are only intelligible in the context of the American history of slavery and genocide.

Anonymous said...

Speaking as an American white woman in a relationship with a Black European man, I couldn't really imagine this kind of play as being erotic at all. I like rough sex, and I occasionally like to be the one in charge, but the idea of racializing that role is instinctively disgusting to me. In the submissive role, well, I don't know. I am into my partner as a strong, powerful man who can sexually wreck me. Perhaps that has some subconscious racial aspects to it. I have no desire to deal with it explicitly using racialized dirty talk or anything like that, though. I don't know how he feels about it but I would be surprised if he asked for that.

And, it should be said, we have different racial baggage to carry than a white USian/AfAm couple likely would. The country where we live has a history of virulent white supremacy, but anti-Black racism doesn't have the sheer amount of cultural iconography or the political centrality here, that it does back home in the US of A. Symbols like the confederate flag or an auction block would not have much personal resonance for my partner. I suppose we could play "Papers, please?" but I'm the immigrant, not him.

Mostly, it's sometimes noticable how other people seem to view us as a walking interracial porn cliche, or as living proof of racial harmony. Role playing the first is not my thing, and role playing the second sounds, well, like some really boring sex.

Anonymous said...

This is beyond sick!

Anonymous said...

What one considers "sick" has been defined as...
"Something that turns you on is considered erotic; something that turns someone else on but turns you off is considered 'sick'. "

leo said...

There is also a group for Black Masters and White Slaves who meet in California for a weekend of BDSM. Do I hear cries of outrage? No, just crickets.

pissed said...

What the fuck this is sick anyone Black person who does this don't deserve to be black your crazy all or ancestors who fought so hard for us and and died look how you repay them making a joke a play go to hell with the racist scum burn forever

Bridget said...

10-29-2013
Revisiting this post, as per your request, Sir.

quinkygirl said...

I came to this post after a lover broke some mildly racialized talk out on me (I'm white; he's black). It bothers me, and I'm going to have to talk to him about it. I'm sex-positive, too. I need to try to understand where this is coming from with him. I don't want to objectify him, and I don't want him to objectify me. And another thing, speaking of objectification -- can all the talk about BBC go away?

Julie said...

This is an embarrassment and a slap in the face to progress and your ancestors...

Alpha said...

Pleased to see you abided His command

Lana Turner said...

To each their own. If people want to experiment, leave them alone! is it affecting you?
I am a Black woman who wants to experiment with this (leave out the whips though). I like BDSM, race play would take me to another level. I want to be dommed by a jealousy White woman who is tired of her man getting pleasured by his slaves.

Sub9 said...

I suppose its strange, but fact and fantasy are DIFFERENT! Race play (seems to be) nothing more than racially flavored BDSM. As a black girl, I find it highly erotic. Messed up? To you, that's your opinion. The people doing race play are concenting adults who are exploring their sexuality. This isnt the same as real slavery where there really was no other choice. Nor is this getting off on Roots.