LOS ANGELES — The newly formed BIPOC Adult Industry Collective (BIPOC-AIC) will host a free online discussion with author Dr. Mireille Miller-Young on Thursday, 6 p.m. (PDT), to discuss her book "A Taste for Brown Sugar: The History of Black Women in Porn."
Thursday's event is the second in the group's "Decolonize Porn" educational series.
The text of today's announcement follows:
"If we do not learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it."
The BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Adult Industry Collective (BIPOC-AIC) offers a unique insight into Black women’s erotic labor in porn with Dr. Mireille Miller-Young. The event is the second of BIPOC-AIC’s “Decolonize Porn” educational series. The series centers Black and Brown sex workers, content creators and academics offering radical topics with the mission of dismantling harmful approaches to sex and sex workers based on learned biases in porn. This donation-based event benefits the BIPOC-AIC Mutual Aid Fund and [assists with] operational costs. The BIPOC-AIC honors, celebrates and empowers Black, Brown, Indigenous, and non-white People of Color working in NSFW adult media to achieve financial liberation through political education, skillshare and transformational justice.
For the last 50 years, Black women have graced the covers of adult magazines and movies, garnering household-name status yet never quite earning the same pay nor respect of the industry [that] made them famous. Much like their mainstream Hollywood counterparts, many of these women have played domestic servants, unsophisticated characters or only supporting roles. Many of these women left the industry with little fanfare, disappearing into infamy. The most famous amongst them are still the subject of inquiry by fans who adored them. Sex scholar and historian, Dr. Mireille Miller-Young, has dedicated her career to research and chronicle these pioneers of the blue screen. Dr. Miller-Young’s first book, “A Taste for Brown Sugar: The History of Black Women in Porn,” is a necessary account of Black women whose struggles for equity, financial liberation and sexual freedom still impacts the industry today.
After the XBIZ Town Hall, it became apparent that many younger performers are not aware of the long history of Black performers, directors, producers and company owners that came before them. To prevent erasure of Black people in the industry, we decided to offer insight into this important archive through one of our first educational events,” said Sinnamon Love, founder of BIPOC-AIC. “Before we can ask people to stop working for companies who produce racist content, we have to put money in folks’ pockets. People need to feed their families and keep a roof over their heads.”
The BIPOC-AIC intends to do precisely that through a series of initiatives to help marginalized performers in need through mediation services with licensed clinicians, weekly virtual wellness classes with sex-positive, sex-worker friendly coaches, and virtual peer-to-peer skillshare workshops. The BIPOC-AIC’s Mutual Aid Fund aims to provide monthly grants to BIPOC community members impacted by COVID-19 or any reason. Applications open August 1 with the first grants beginning September 1.
For additional details and to register for Thursday's event, click here.
Learn more about BIPOC-AIC here and on Twitter and Instagram.
Limited-edition "Legends of Black Erotica" custom T-shirts, benefitting the group, can be purchased here.