Category Archives: Subcultures

pony and pal, Big Gay Al, at SmokeOut, Las Vegas 2011

…in which the Gay Highwaymen interview Marc “pony” Owens about race play. Owens is a well-known and respected player in Northern California. He is the outgoing Mr. Alameda County Leather, and active in the Golden Gate Guards and The 15 Association. Controversial even in hardcore Leather and Kink circles, race play brings up strong emotions in both those who practice it and those who criticize it. Owens plays that way…and speaks for himself.

G.H.: What is the appeal of race play for you?

M.p.O.: It brings out the submissive in me. White dominance over blacks: it’s almost the final frontier in tabu play.

G.H.: How did you get into it?

M.p.O.: Very slowly. I always had fantasies of it. It was either 1999 or 2000 when I met my Daddies in Berkeley while cruising online and we chatted about it through instant messenger. It was so hot I finally summoned the courage to meet with one of them and explore it. It was mind blowing!

G.H.: How does race play relate, and what are the differences and similarities, to racism and historical slavery?

M.p.O.: Well regarding racism and historical slavery…The similarity is the power exchange element of it. As a black submissive you are giving Whites power over you. Most submissives like being degraded and made to feel less than human next to their Dom. I’m just using historical slavery and racism to get to the extreme level of my kind of hardcore BDSM.

G.H.: How does it relate to Verbal Abuse, Humiliation, Degradation and Trash Talk?

Many submissives like being called “Bitch” “Whore” and other degrading names. Because the power in those words hits a chord with them and turns them on. To be called Coon, Monkey or the “N” word hits a chord with me and turns me on. To be humiliated and degraded because I’m black adds to and feeds my sexual desire. In race play the similarities are the same as any other type of S&M play it’s just the difference is I’m a black person in a mostly White dominated field of BDSM and that kind of puts me in that unique position to use race play to turn my TOP on and myself. The energy is amazing when you have two people who are really into it.

G.H.: And how does it relate to the Dom/sub dynamic?

M.p.O.: Since those types of relationships are based on the Top’s beliefs that the sub is not equal to them, that goes along with the White knowing he is superior to the black. It sweetens the pot in the relationship. Blacks who want to be submissive to Whites truly want to feel they are inferior to them. That puts them in the submissive headspace they need to be in.

Part II here. Part III coming soon…Comments are welcome.