Explores dramatic switchpoints between the terms "black" and "queer", with reference to matters such as the stigmatized "skin" of some queers' clothes and the visual power of interracial homosexual rape. This book covers the domains of African American studies, queer theory, psychoanalysis, film theory, photography, semiotics, and gender studies.

Stockton asserts that there is no clear, mirrored relation between the terms "black" and "queer"; rather, seemingly definitive associations attached to each are often taken up or crossed through by the other. Stockton explores dramatic switchpoints between these terms, with reference to such matters as the stigmatized "skin" of some queers' clothes and the visual power of interracial homosexual rape. All of the thinkers Stockton considers scrutinize the social nature of shame, as they plumb the structures that make debasements possible, bearable, pleasurable, and creative, even in their darkness.