Antiblack racism and the metalanguage of sexuality

This essay engages Evelyn Higginbotham’s article, “African American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race,” in which she challenges approaches to studying black women’s lives and culture in the fields of history and women’s studies. Likewise, our essay examines the usefulness and implications of Higginbotham’s theory for black sexuality studies and queer-of-color critiques. Thus, we suggest that antiblack racism functions as a metalanguage of sexuality, both in its structural constraints and in the way black communities respond to them. Paying close attention to interdisciplinary and intersectional knowledges, we push beyond cisgender and heteronormative formulations of Higginbotham’s work to theorize a metalanguage of sexuality and its significance for black communities.