Troubling Intersections of Race and Sexuality: Queer Students of Color and Anti-Oppressive Education (Curriculum, Cultures, and (Homo)Sexualities)

Rating:
Summary: a mixed bag for a complicated subject
Review: This book intends to be a resource for those who want to explore the educational issues facing GLBT students of color. The anthology is divided into academic writers coming up with theories on the matter and vignettes from gay students of color describing their experiences. It brings up many common topics from which LGBTPOC students often have to endure: being the only person of color in gay-straight alliances, dealing with same-race peers who say no one of their background could be gay, coming out to immigrant parents when there is no word for "gay" in one's home-spoken language, etc. In general, the point of the book is to get educators to think of students who are twice removed from mainstream school radars and whom many don't even think exist. However, there may be too many cooks in this rather short anthology. With much effort, Kumashiro attempts to explain why this anthology does critical work without trying to state that racism and homophobia are the worse or only injustices facing students. Nevertheless, his words are bogged down in inpenetrable language and many readers are going to (wrongly) stop reading the book after his introduction. The non-elite, non-academic readers are going to be bored and confused by the writings of the academics. The academics are going to be dismissive of all the "uhms" and "likes" of the young gays of color. IN ADDITION, READERS WHO DON'T COME FROM LEFT-WING, POSTMODERN SETTINGS WILL BE INSTANTLY HORRIFIED AT EVERY AUTHORS' UNCRITICAL USAGE OF THE TERM "QUEER". There are superb pieces here, such as McCready's exploration of why black males haven't joined a California gay student group. Still, there are hollow, poorly stitched-together pieces such as Chen-Hayes' article on multiracial families. Education is a hodgepodge field that draws from multiple disciplines anyway. Thus, I don't know where Kumashiro's project falters on its own or what. But this was a difficult effort on an important topic. Fans of writings from gays and lesbians of color still should add this to their collection. The work cited pages in all the articles point to other (better?) sources that readers will want to find as well.

Rating:
Summary: Great project, complex subject, poor results......
Review: This book is an anthology about the school experiences of young gay men and lesbians of color. It is an important intervention in that this group is twice as removed from mainstream educators' radars. It annihilates the pure fallacy that all the gays are white and all the people of color are straight. However, this project is all over the place. Academic readers will hate the "uhm"'s and "like"'s of the personal student narratives. Non-academic readers will be turned off by the high-level jargon of the scholars. Many people will especially be lost after reading Kumashiro's introduction. The uncritical use of the word "queer" is very problematic as well. Some articles are great (McCready, for example); some are the definition of terrible (Shen-Hayes). I think those interested in gays and lesbians of color will want to buy this book. Still, they should be aware that it could have been better.