As scholars like Thomas Dotton, Del Whan, Carl Wittman, and Allen Young attest, the gay community is not immune to the issues of systemic racism which plague mainstream society, with the minority group – akin to their straight counterparts – upholding middle-class, young, white men at the top of the hierarchy and relegating members of color to the lower rungs. Part of this process, in turn, also transforms the ethnicities of these individuals into exotic and erotic others, as can be seen in William Cozad’s short story “Riot Night” contained in this issue of Mandate (which has been broken into two parts). In the tale, the white narrator encounters an African-American man at a racism protest and takes him back to his home, “determined to cross racial barriers and get [his] hands on that black dick.” Included in the second half (see the first half here) are the short stories “Humpin’ Hillbillies” (involving a bisexual threeway) and “A Night with a Knight” (about love at a Renaissance Fair) and photospreads titled “All Over You…All Over the House,” “The Masculine Ideal,” and “A Touch of Class.”
