Customer Reviews

Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South

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Thoroughly researched and completely engaging, "Sweet Tea" is a look into an overlooked minority: black, gay men of the South. The author spent time interviewing dozens of men - all natives who still call the South home -from all age ranges and transcribed the conversations. The interviews are eye-opening. The South is one of the most stereotyped and misunderstood regions of the United States and the personal histories these Southern men relate are illuminating. They are the stories of men who pursued an active gay lifestyle even while remaining part of their families, their communities and their churches.

One of the more unforgettable interview subjects is Chaz/Chastity, a drag queen whom the author discovers almost by accident in his own North Carolina hometown. There are several photos of Chaz scattered throughout the various sections of the book, as well as those of other subjects. The photos are intimate and touching, showing the breadth of these men's lives.

Another strength of the book is the author's own personal story: in the introduction, Johnson discusses his reasons for embarking upon this project and his own experience growing up in the South as a black, gay man. It's fortunate that Johnson wrote this book as it's an important piece of scholarship that deserves all the accolades it receives.

The author, E. Patrick Johnson, is to be commended for the end product of his research into the lives of black gay men of the southern United States! Through numerous interviews with men of varying degrees of "outness" he has recorded their stories, and grouped them in 7 primary subject headings. While they cover the full range from joyous to tragic, they all deserve to be heard, and Mr. Johnson has let them tell their stories. Now, it is up to us to read, and hear, those stories! It is a journey that will not leave you unmoved... you WILL take away a new heightened awareness of the issues facing these men, whether they are 19 or 90. Kudos to each and every one of the men who shared their lives and stories!

Sweet tea is a qualitative analysis of several southern gay black males with a mixture of stories about their past histories. It rarely touches on the "gay" aspect of their lives, yet it presents almost every other aspect. The book is mostly ethnographic verbatim interviews (some rather difficult to read, as at times the subjects' English is non-standard and hard to follow). This book is important should the reader wish to understand southern gay male black culture with its many and varied histories and dynamics.

E. Patrick Johnson's new book SWEET TEA purports to dignify the lives of Black Gay men from the American South by allowing them to tell their own stories. Maybe that's what Johnson meant to do when he began research on this lengthy book of interviews. Unfortunately, he seems to have gotten sidetracked by his ego, his condescending attitude and his willingness to exploit other Gay men in the pursuit of a theatre career. His one-man stage show based on this book may be artistically valid, but the book itself fails as valid scholarship. Johnson stages a freak show in print of apparently inarticulate, self-aggrandizing sex and gender exotics, all friends of his or friends of his friends. After making them appear as unsophisticated and quaint as he possibly can, he lines them up for curious Straight folk to gawk at. Johnson's fondness for idle gossip, for using sexual slurs as endearments, and his ill-begotten warts-and-all style of editing(???)transcripts all reinforce the freak show aspect of his book. While some passages do convey warmth, wisdom, fortitude and personal empowerment, all too often they're undermined by frivolty, stereotype, sensationalism and braggadocio. If only that were the worst of it: Johnson's downplaying of Southern Black heterosexism is disturbing, his stated method of turning interview subjects into "performers" is manipulative, and his characterization of Black churches as vehicles for sex cruising is offensive! Black Gay identity deserves far more dignity than it gets in this overpriced volume. Sweet Tea is spiked with rotgut whiskey, and the flavor is more bitter than sweet.