Toward the new Black studies: Or beyond the old race man

A meditation on the present and future of Black studies, this article uses several examples to chart the institutional rise of the discipline of this subject. It is an investigation into the central hetero-normative assumptions about "the Black community." As such, the article challenges negative perceptions about Black scholars and Black studies in the academy. Finally, it provides a genealogy of Black studies in which Black queer studies is viewed as a predictable part of the discipline's progression.