In the Life:

Abstract

This essay provides a moment for readers to rethink the scholarly or disciplinary methodologies, as well as national ideologies, that shape black sexuality studies and examinations of sexual economies. As communities throughout the African Diaspora continue to work toward sexual decolonization, they do so in ways that highlight the tensions and conflicts of a public/private binary embedded in sexual economies. This essay compels readers to see what is at stake for persons of color in the Caribbean researching what has been articulated as a private concern “sexuality.” In theorizing intellectual labor on sexuality, the author prioritizes the local, the political, and the socio-cultural landscape so as to demand an ethical relationship between scholars and their subjects. In sum, the essay explores how black sexual intellectuals can blur the boundaries between public and private binaries. In articulating the conflicts between making sex public, and thus research on sexuality accessible, the author reminds readers of the importance of embodiment and activism for African Diasporic communities where the end goal is sexual decolonization.