“Our scene is politically incorrect”

This study addresses the phenomenon of race play, racially explicit erotic practices in the context of BDSM (bondage, discipline, domination, and submission, sadism, and masochism). The aim is to understand how subjects negotiate pleasure in a context regulated by three main paradigms: the distinction between “good” and “bad” sex ; politically correct eroticism; and black respectability politics. The analysis in question is productive in three interconnected fields: (i) in the field of race, it highlights the tension between the ideology of racial harmony and anti-racist discourses; (ii) in the field of gender and sexuality, it highlights the tension between discourses of sexual freedom, consent, and vulnerability; and (iii) in the socio-anthropological field, it deepens debates on identity and essentialism, as well as nuancing the dynamics of agency and structure.