Damien Riggs, “The Psychic Life of Racism in Gay Men’s Communities” (Lexington Books, 2018)

In order to fully grasp the workings of racism, we cannot limit ourselves to examining it within majority cultures. Racism exists in minority cultures, such as the gay community, but the intersection of diverse minority identities can make the operation of racism difficult to see. This is the subject of Damien Riggs’ new anthology, The Psychic Life of Racism in Gay Men’s Communities (Lexington Books, 2018). The book brings together various authors who address topics such as islamophobia, orientalism, and the African diaspora within the gay community. And in our interview, Riggs and I discuss how heterogeneity within the gay community often gets overlooked; the unique ways racism manifests in the gay community compared to non-gay communities; and how desire among gay men becomes dangerously racialized. His book and this interview offer an opportunity for examining one’s unconscious and disavowed racist biases, even among those who claim other kinds of marginalized identities.

Damien W. Riggs is Associate Professor in Social Work at Flinders University and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He is the author of over 150 publications in the fields of gender/sexuality studies and mental health. He also works in private practice as a Lacanian psychotherapist.

Eugenio Duarte, Ph.D. is a psychologist and psychoanalyst practicing in New York City and Miami. He treats individuals and couples, with specialties in gender and sexuality, eating and body image problems, and relationship issues. He is a graduate of the psychoanalytic training program at William Alanson White Institute and former chair of their LGBTQ Study Group. He is also a contributing author to the book Introduction to Contemporary Psychoanalysis: Defining Terms and Building Bridges (Routledge, 2018).

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