The Author (George M. Johnson)

The author, George M. Johnson, identifies himself as Black, queer, and male-identified. The capitalization is his, and follows a pattern established and maintained throughout the book. The point is not made to suggest that in his contemplations of his history or of his identity, he contemplates one aspect of himself over another. His representations and explorations of his queerness are given as much attention as his Blackness, although both take significantly more focus than his explorations of his gender identity. Rather, the point about capitalization is made to show how the author represents himself in the pages of his memoir, for reasons of his own choosing that he does not explain in the text. There is a sense, however, that those reasons have to do with recognition of Black culture and identity to the same degree as, say, persons of Chinese or African...