Why I Hate Abercrombie and Fitch: Essays on Race and Sexuality is a book regarding ethno-relational mores in contemporary gayAfrican America with a nod to black, feminist and queer cultural contexts "dedicated to integrating sexuality and race into black and queer studies."1 It is written by Dwight A. McBride, the new dean of the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Arts and Sciences. The book is published by New York University Press and used in Queer Studies234 as well as related college courses in universities567 McBride was a guest speaker at several universities speaking about the essay's subjects of race and sexuality in America.8910 The collection of essays "offering contemporary cultural criticism" was a 2006 Lambda Literary Award and 2006 Hurston-Wright Legacy Award nominee11 as well as the Passing The Torch winner from the New York University Press.12
The book is divided into three main sections: "Queer Black Thought," "Race and Sexuality on Occasion" and "Straight Black Talk" all exploring facets of the intersections of race, sexuality, class and gender issues. The often personal essays speak to the "ghettoization of black men in gay male porn"13 to broader subjects including the book's namesake Abercrombie & Fitch and how the clothing retailer influences the gay African-American male. McBride has been recognized as a specialist in bridging LGBT and racial issues illuminating both.14
Selected reviews
Bradway, Tyler. College Literature, Fall 2006, Vol. 33 Issue 4, pgs. 223-225.
^ "Rethinking Secularism in an Age of Belief". The Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory (2005). Retrieved on 2007-08-15.