I envision the idea of activism as acts necessarily encompassing many things. Unfortunately, in the case of Black activism, race alone is commonly centralized. It is difficult to argue against the evidence that indicates that many injustices faced by people of African descent in particular have much to do with how race has been historically constituted. In particular, I am very concerned with the ways those who are deemed as “racial others” frequently find themselves physically sequestered in public as well as private spaces (such as Black churches, Black neighborhoods, prisons, and militaries). I am also deeply concerned about the ways being sequestered into places that are commonly underfunded, helps to paint a more clear picture of the multiple ways inequality, traveling along the axis of race, is perpetuated in society.

Though race, race as a social construct, racial inequality, racial injustices (social, political, medical, intellectual), racism and racists take a great deal of energy from Black activists, other systems of power that intersect with axis of race are commonly and summarily denied Black activists’ intellectual attention. For example, the ways that gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, religious oppression, and the popular cultural tendency towards a celebratory anti-intellectualism amongst young Blacks specifically must be considered...

In this blog entry, I want to talk about what I think about religion and the role I believe it plays in how we understand, negotiate, talk about and deal with sexuality as a global culture. I also want to push us to think about how intersectionality as a concept may be well positioned to enable us as scholars of sexuality to identify the multiple ways this particular concept may be used to help illuminate what exactly gets constituted when religion and sexuality intersect.

This past semester (fall ’09) I took a seminar with Patricia Hill Collins. The class was an advanced theory lecture on intersectionality. We debated the merits, tenets, origins, and future of the concept. We considered how it has influenced feminist theory and praxis inside of and outside of the academy. We wrestled with the idea of it being a heuristic device or a paradigm. And, despite many scholars whose research we read over the course of the semester, where it was routinely suggested that “intersectional theory” had been employed in their research we asked, is intersectionality a theory?

We talked about what intersectionality needs to do to be...

On February 11, 2009 in the Grand Ball Room of Stamp Student Union, syndicated columnist Dan Savage, spoke to our campus through the combined efforts of SEE campus entertainment, Campus Coalition for Sexual Literacy (CCSL) and the Pride Alliance. The event was well attended and the Diamondback covered the story; the journalist gave a favorable review of Savage’s talk, and of the levels of participation from the audience. Though most were pleased with Mr. Savage’s self-styled “Q&A” some attendees wanted more. He was funny but there were some instances where what he said may have benefited from a deeper thoughtfulness.

One of the questions posed to Mr. Savage caught my attention. Someone asked the following: How did you become a sex expert? Mr. Savage looked into the audience, shrugged his shoulders and said: I have no idea. He more fully answered the question by going on to state that he had an article that was syndicated early in his career and one thing led to another. I found his answer unsatisfying. It suggests, amongst other things, that all one has to do to be an expert on sex, sexuality, or sexually related issues is to be able to say sexually provocative things publicly and with a straight (sic) face....

I drive to campus daily. On my commute, I have noticed a growing number of “sex can wait” messages on billboards carried by the communications company Clear Channel. In each of the ads, we see young brown people prominently featured. These “sex [act] can wait” billboard messages support messages that are clearly promoting what Dr. Gil Herdt calls “sexual ignorance” in our society. We know there is a powerfully aggressive resistance in American culture towards any real attempts put forth to demystify sexuality, especially when considering the youth of the nation. This resistance to endowing the young with sexual literacy stems from multiple locations of power (education system, political system, religion, the institution of family) and permeates the social structure on every conceivable level. This being such, the billboards eventually lead me to wonder what a counter-message would say.

Would it speak about the beauty and power of human sexuality? Or would it invite commuters to find out about how satisfying sex can be when you have a sound background in sexual education regardless of ones, age, sexual orientation or level of income? Simply thinking about a billboard sponsored by the National Sexuality Resource Center for example, made me wonder, how do...