Robert Reid-Pharr is an essayist and professor. His work focuses on issues of cultural and sexual identity. 
 

"Here, then, despite the regressive racial and gender politics that framed the Million Man March, there were countless improvisational moments of transcendence. The reality of all public spectacles is that the outcome is never certain; no one can confidently predict what its attendees will take away from it, what meanings its many participants will attribute to it. The sad part is that the march organizers evinced so little respect for this wondrously messy and ambiguous process. Once again we were urged to mount the tired horse of black patriarchy."

– Robert Reid-Pharr, Black Gay Man: Essays