Quote Me: Q&A at John Jay College

After much struggling with uploading this from my camcorder into my ‘puter and from my ‘puter to YouTube, I finally got this clip up and out into the virtual world.

The backstory: my homegurl Bianca Laureano asked me to talk to her two Human Sexuality classes about my post and podcast on Racialicious about race and sex advice. Of course, I happily did it, though I didn’t quite know what to expect. (Was I supposed to give a lecture-lecture? Just go with the question flow? Orate from my piece and throw some Zane in there?) Thankfully, the sessions were Q&A, and the students animated and engaged. The most common question asked was about race, sex, and the dance floor, namely the stereotypes of white people and Black women functioning in the clubs.

But that was not the question posed at the beginning of this clip. The student asked me about the racialized images in porn play themselves out in straight and same-gender-loving sexual/romantic relationships. Here’s my response, along with my responding to the Rihanna/Chris Brown intimate-partner violence situation, which was just emerging as a news story when I filmed the clip.

I’d like to thank Bianca for the incredible opportunity to talk to her classes and for letting me tape it. (That’s Bianca you see in the clip.) I also give a bouquet of gratitude to Carmen Van Kerckhove for encouraging me to record this and to Latoya Peterson for telling me to breathe.