Explain how might we think of The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man by James Weldon Johnson as a queer text.

I think that there are few assertions to be made on the
outset.  The primary level of distinction in the work is one predicated upon race and
racial identity.  This is not something that can be whittled away.  Lines such as,
individuals of color "of this country know and understand the white people better than
the white people know and understand them," help to bring this into total focus.  The
idea of the narrator being obsessed with the issue of race and racial identity
throughout the autobiography also helps to bring this into full light.  Yet, I think
that the text can be seen as analogous to groups such as gay and lesbian and
transgendered individuals with the idea of substituting sexual identity for race.  The
notion of seeking to come to terms with being "different" in a society is something that
can help make this work compatible works that analyze what it means to be different in a
sexual sense from the cultural majority.  I think that this might be the only way that
one can see this text as queer, in that we have to replace what is constructed as racial
identity for that of sexual orientation.