Beyond White Gays/Gaze: Imperialist Nostalgia, Racialized Homophobia and Queer Extravaganza

‘Where Did All the Critical White Gay Men Go?’ With Gloria Wekker’s question in mind, I propose to discuss the concept of imperialist nostalgia, i.e. ‘a condition in which colonizers mourn the passing of what they themselves have altered, destroyed, or transformed’. Wekker sheds light on how dominant discourses, emerging from white male gays and the white gaze, represent homophobia as being embodied by people of colour and more especially by young Muslim men. Through the racialization of homophobia and the consolidation of the white/gay/innocent triad, the ‘colour-blind’ rainbow flag is subtly overlaid on other realities. The imagery of imperialist nostalgia obscures the complex imbrications of systems of oppression, reinforces Islamophobia and racism, and denies the existence of intersectional queer identities and desires. Far from obfuscating its epistemological implications, this paper examines the demystification of white gay innocence through what Gloria Wekker calls critical nostalgia – a type of nostalgia ‘with nonnormative sexualities as a basis upon which a politics of solidarity can take off, and for which hard work will be required’ – and understands queer extravaganza as one of its routes/roots. I will draw attention to how the TV show "Pose" (2018) and the novel "Brother" (2017) by David Chariandy reinscribe black and brown queer subjectivities and alliances onto historicity and offer a glimpse at future coalitions by potentially triggering the loss of self-alleged innocence of its (white gay) audience/readers. Wekker, Gloria. 2016. "White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race." Durham: Duke University Press.