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In this text, the author raids the borders of contemporary criticism to show how debilitating "protectionist" stances can be and how much might be gained by crossing cultural boundaries. From Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It" to Michael Jackson's physical transmutations, from male scholars' investments in feminism to white scholars' in black texts - Awkward explores cultural moments that challenge the exclusive critical authority of race and gender. In each instance he asks: What do artists, scholars and others concerned with representations of Afro-American life make of the view that gender, race and sexuality circumscribe their own and others' lives and narratives? In pursuing a black male/feminist criticism, the study acknowledges the complexities of interpretation in an age when a variety of powerful discourses have proliferated on the subject of racial, gendered and sexual difference. It also identifies this proliferation as an opportunity to negotiate seemingly fixed cultural and critical positions.