NBN Classic: Anne Balay, "Semi Queer: Inside the World of Gay, Trans, and Black Truck Drivers" (UNC Press, 2018)

New Books in African American Studies · Oct 2, 2022 · 56m

This episode proved remarkably popular, so we're reposting it as an NBN classic for those who missed it the first time. In this multi-layered ethnography that centers truck drivers, Semi Queer: Inside the World of Gay, Trans, and Black Truck Drivers (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) describes both the long-haul trucking industry as well as the significance of truck driving for LGBTQ truck drivers and truck drivers of color. Anne Balay first lays out the industry in arguing the ways that systemically truck drivers both are “overregulated and underpaid” and yet is still able to provide…