An investigation of the role of shame in mediating between the signs "black" and "queer." The author explores dramatic switch points between these terms, with reference to such matters as the stigmatized "skin" of some queers' clothes and the visual power of interracial homosexual rape.

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 switch points 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.