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In Part 1 of Nightcharm's series on interracial gay porn, Billie Armstrong wrote about the eroticism of difference in the limited range of available videos. The atrophied imagination of those videos can infuriate us -- how can such a "no limits" genre have such a prissy view of race and sex? Or, it can inflame us by touching our basest racial fantasies.
In Part 2, Iain Jackson further examines the state of homo video interracial fucking by detailing the portrayal of men of color in the short history of the genre. You can find interracial scenes, but there is always something left to be desired.
Our nation's fear of out-of-control, anger-filled, rampaging black male sexuality is turned into jerkoff material for your viewing pleasure! And, of course, the white guy likes it! Sort of. Two national insecurities, gay sex and the angry black man's revenge, for the price of The Ethnic Thang Smut seems to be all about segregation these days, and videos that do feature interracial sex treat those of us who are minorities like fetish objects. Catalina has its Black Gold imprint as well as Baja Bay (Latino) and Far East Features. All Worlds Video regularly issues videos with all-black or all-Latino casts, most pointedly placing the word "black" or "latin" in the title, most less polished than their other videos. Other companies put out several ethnic titles, with quality about what you'd expect from low-cost, churn-'em-out productions. Unfortunately, minority gays make up such a small portion of the porn market, companies don't have a lot of reason to produce higher quality product. If ethnic minorities weren't treated as fetish objects, we'd barely be visible at all. Some Latino performers, like Joe Romero, Max Grand, and Tony Acosta, work for the major labels in interracial scenes. For the small number who do get to work for major labels with some regularity, however, there are the dozens who work for places like Latino Fan Club. The very few blacks working in better productions work almost exclusively with each other, emphasizing segregationist attitudes in the companies -- and maybe the consumers.
Who's Topping Who? Both corporate and consumer attitudes contribute to the situation. In an interview at cockring.org, actor Jason Branch says, "there's blatant racism [in our community] too....And that's mirrored in the porn industry....There's a major video company that has stringent rules about interracial scenes. I forget exactly what the rules are, but it's something like the black guy can top the white guy, but the white guy can't top the black guy but cock sucking is OK, and the rules are blurred a lot with latinos or blatinos because they're "less ethnic" or something. The owner recently died, so hopefully the rules will change ....You know, sex is about two or more people who are attracted to each other, not about whether any ethnicity is involved. You'll hear racist remarks and guys will refuse to work with someone who is African-American....I'd like to see the porn industry have a little more conscience with what they produce." Precisely no blacks appeared on the Falcon gold label between Night Flight in 1986 and The Freshman in 1996, according to a review of the latter video. Not one. Good Color Co-ordinates Some companies do put out good quality videos with interracial/multiracial casts. In fact, Altomar has done just that for years. Altomar's founders, Thor Johnson and Rolf-Eric Bergmann, enjoy an interracial relationship and their videos don't make a point of jumping up and down shouting, "Hey, this guy's black and this guy's Latino! Woo-hoo!" Unfortunately, Altomar's a minor label, since they produce maybe two, three videos a year, if that. Their casts tend to be older, as well, with people ranging in age from their thirties to their sixties. In a culture and subculture obsessed not only with youth, but with keeping different people in their own little corners, they clearly don't have a ticket to the Titan also takes a similar approach. Brian Mills, Titan's director of production, explains in the commentary track on their Laid Up DVD that although there are technical difficulties involved in shooting interracial scenes, they still like seeing "mixed ethnic pairings or groupings on video." It winds their crank, basically. I can understand the technical difficulties; if you're not very careful, you wind up with a perfectly normal looking black man next to someone completely washed out or glowing, or you get a perfectly normal looking white person next to a moving shadow. Still, Titan does it, so why don't other studios more often? Falcon's approach to race may actually be changing. More minorities are appearing in interracial scenes in current productions (if still in restricted roles). Three of Falcon's six current labels will be directed by ChiChi Larue and Chris Ward and both directors have used multiracial casts more freely for other labels. There may yet be hope. Shades of Gray -- made in 1994 by the late, lamented Bijou Studios and directed by Mike Donner -- actually addresses race explicitly. The blond guy falls in love with the black guy, and friends on both sides have a major hissyfit; eventually, the friends decide that whatever makes the guys happy is what they should -- grudgingly -- support. To be sure, Shades is an awkward production; when the raison d'etre is to convey sex scenes for your wanking pleasure, it's difficult to do much with a real issue besides sprint past it. (Porn videos can handle a story or throughline, just barely; throw something more real into the mix and the sexual charge dies.) Still, they took on the issue, and that's worth noticing. In the 1980s, black-owned Black Forest Productions made all-black videos that were actually good. They used mature men, mostly over 25, and the production values were decent for that early period. The men were treated as people who happened to be black, and not the stereotype Big Bad Black Man. They were fun. Working it up with Bobbie Joe is a funny, sexy parody of morning workout shows -- I wouldn't do that on a weight bench myself, but it looks great. In Black Forest Productions Duo Series, volume 4, two guys tease each other while cleaning house; the best moment is when one of them pops off the other in the middle of a blowjob and says, "Well, I still have to do the dishes," and the other growls, "I still love you anyway!" (Pornvids with humor are rare, and those with well-done humor even more so.) Unfortunately, the founder died, and the company faded away. Even so, the old videos and photographs reappear every now and again, re-released, re-published, licensed for websites. The quality holds up pretty well. Politically Correct Desire? The Latino market may only have just reached the stage where something equivalent to Black Forest Productions will work. Enrique Cruz is creating something similar for Latinos with LaMancha Video, although he hasn't gotten there yet. It doesn't help that LaMancha uses young performers who sometimes look as if they'd rather be somewhere There's no such thing as politically correct desire. Ethnicity affects who you see in a video and what they're doing. So in a ChiChi Larue video, you may see Latinos and whites doing just about everything, including spitting like salivary glands were going out of style. In a Chris Ward video (left), you may see a black man bottoming for a white in "vanilla" sex and more. In a Titan video, you'll see "mixed ethnic pairings or groupings." And elsewhere, you get Latino Fan Club's Horse Hung Hispanics, or Black Box's Boys in da Hood, or Stylus Men's Asian Balls, or Falcon 1986-1996 inclusive. Seems like things should be different by now, doesn't it?
Opening graphic/photo from: Latino Posse Copyright Bacchus Releasing. |
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