ABSTRACT
The brutal killings of James Byrd Jr. and Matthew Shepard in 1998 drew national attention to gender, sexual, and racial divisions between men in America. Once the details of these violent crimes were released, many locals, as well as many people throughout the USA, were horrified, confused, and outraged by their extreme nature. Although racism and homophobia still permeate our cultural and social relations in the United States, no one expected these extreme forms of violence. Explanations for these crimes, as well as for racism and homophobia in general, focused on the individual. Some journalists argued that the social backgrounds and social conditions of the killers may have contributed to their racism or their homophobia. Few accounts explained how social constructions of race, gender, and sexuality may have contributed to these crimes as well as to other forms of racial and sexual violence.
