First Year Hon. Mention: Violence Against Black Queer People: The Intersections of Antiblackness and Antiqueerness in North American Society

HUMA 1300, Cultures of Resistance in the Americas: The African American Experience. CD: Andrea Davis.

Abstract

In the essay "Violence Against Black Queer People: The Intersections of Antiblackness and Antiqueerness in North American Society,” Michelle Molubi has produced a lucid, well-organized paper on a challenging topic. Writing with gravitas, Molubi draws upon an inclusive bibliography to interrogate “[t]he racism perpetuated by queer communities and the homophobia perpetuated by black communities.”

The adjudicators were impressed by Molubi’s discussion of the social construction of violence and victimhood, as well as the analysis of religion and race to tease apart homogeneous understandings of ”queer community.” The author’s strategy of interspersing statistics and brief excerpts from news accounts with substantive argument helps to underscore the present-day relevance of the sophisticated theoretical analysis.