First, I want to thank Naleighna for bringing me on board to open up this portion
of the magazine, aptly entitled, “The Pleasure Zone”.
Whenever I open up something new, I usually do it in my usual fashion, coming
out the box swinging—no pun intended (well, sort of) and popping some shock
value along the way. With this initial installment, I’m taking the opportunity to
speak on a subject that most might not be aware of, although that fact is changing
by the minute. “Shades of Black”…or, more aptly put, people of color (Black people,
too) not only practice different disciplines within BDSM (Bondage, Discipline,
Domination and submission, Sadomasochism), but they do so publicly and in
real time, too.
While my Nubian Underworld series is immersed with parts of fiction, it is also
based on real-time people, including myself and my Beloved, who are actively
living within the BDSM subculture, what the mainstream loves to call “the
lifestyle.” For all of us, this is a way of life, this is who we are. We just happen to
be Black.
Between the pages of the first book of the Nubian Underworld series, The
Awakening, one half of my main couple character, Ramesses, serves up the
following missive: “Regardless of what you’ve read or seen on HBO, we are
ordinary people. We go to work; some of us even own businesses. We pay taxes,
and a lot of us are very spiritual people. We are in stable relationships, and have
even been married for long periods of time. We raise families, and our children
have the same experiences as others they sit next to in classrooms everyday. The
thing that separates us from “normal” people is we enjoy doing more than just two
positions while making love. Oh, and one more thing: we do this in the privacy
of our homes, so it’s none of your business what we do, unless we make it your
business.”
Now, why did I choose the turn of phrase, “Shades of Black”? Well, it’s not hard to
figure that one out. That infamous series has opened the door for a lot of dialogue
over the past few years, but what if I told you that books and series like mine were
around long before that phenomenon that seemed to sweep the country came
along? What if I also told you that Black people have been actively involved in the
BDSM scene for a longer period of time than you might realize?