When I was a wee little gay, one of the adult film companies I was a huge fan of is Raging Stallion. Not only that, but one of my favorite models was Race Cooper. While I am not surprised that the mainstream gay porn industry has an issue with diversifying their models, I am gagging over the tea Cooper is spilling in regards to his experience as a Raging Stallion Exclusive.
The former casting director turned adult film model opened up to PinkNews, and revealed in an interview that even though he signed on as an exclusive for the company he was paid significantly less for being black.
“In 2010 I became the only full-time black person who worked as an employee,” he says, “and was the only Black exclusive contract on their roster. There was systemic racism at the company. The question of, ‘Is there anyone that you wouldn’t like to work with?’ was asked of all models and tracked with the encouragement from producers and directors to be ‘honest’ and ‘specific’.”
Cooper also alleges that models were allowed to racially profile their co-stars based on race, and says he was paid significantly less based on the color of his skin.
“Even fetish scenes that I did, which paid slightly more per shoot, still paid less than any white exclusive,” he says. “I was made to feel like I was not worthy of praise, validation, and definitely less valuable than all of the white actors.”
Cooper ended up being the only model chopped from Raging Stallion after it got swallowed up by the very vanilla Falcon Studios.
Cooper also says that when you pay POC less than their white counterparts, it sends a profound message: that black men are fetishized within the industry, and worth less than their counterparts of other races. “When you fetishize a person, you are dehumanizing that person into a thing,” he says. “Fetishes like fist play or sling play have nothing to do with race or skin color. Anyone can participate. But when your fetish is any interchangeable ‘Black guy’, you are taking the human component out of it, and just treating them as objects based on their skin color.”
“Fetishisation diminishes the person of colour, uses them for only personal sexual gratification, and discards them when done,” he continues. “That impact stays with Black people who feel their worth is only in the sexual gratification they can provide to white people.”
Overall Cooper asked for the LGBTQ+ community to not be afraid to speak up about racism, especially when it comes to sex.
“As a gay community that wants to truly be anti-racist, and support all of our brothers, sisters and cousins, we have to clean house. While Black Lives Matter focuses on police brutality, how we view and treat others sexually and engage with them, must also be addressed. It’s not enough to only care about Black people in public, but still reduce them to objects we hide under our bed at home. We can’t claim empathy when Black people are killed in the streets, considering we currently treat them differently in the sheets.”
“Racism takes many forms, and our thoughts on racism and sex need to change.”
Quiet as it’s kept I don’t think much has changed in regards to how mainstream gay porn companies treat their token models of a darker hue. This is why I haven’t purchased a porn movie since 2008.
You can read his full interview here
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