Anti-black skin, white sheets: Challenging sexual color-blindness through a sexual humility framework

Sexual desire and attraction are often construed as personal, idiosyncratic, and private. Critical examinations of sexual desire and the "science of attraction," however, reveal that these apolitical constructions uphold white supremacy and perpetuate sexual racism. Thus, the idea of "sexual color-blindness"-intentionally or unintentionally ignoring racialized desires-detaches desire from larger societal forces, limits reflection, and maintains a racialized sexual hierarchy. Drawing on critical race theory and psychoanalysis, this chapter analyzes public discourse (including via social media) to explore how sexual color-blindness cloaks the desire for whiteness under consumer preference within neoliberal political economies. This analysis reveals how the psychological science of attraction is itself textured by sexual color-blindness, normalizing sexual racism under the rubric of science. "Sexual humility" is proposed as an alternative to encourage discourse confronting sexual racism and to explore our desires without shame or moralization, working toward decolonizing desire in the streets and under the sheets.