CANOGA PARK, Calif. – Lexington Steele, Mercenary Pictures owner and three time AVN Male Performer of the Year, is featured in an article about race and the adult industry in the February issue of mainstream English men’s magazine Arena. Titled The New Porn Apartheid and written by Justin Quirk, the article investigates racism in the American porn industry and notes that anxiety over the election and re-election of George W. Bush as president had a chilling effect on the industry which set the tone for fewer interracial scenes in adult feature movies. Quirk also notes that black male performers cast in negative stereotypes, such as gang members, in interracial titles that perpetuate those roles were produced long before Bush came into office. “I have become the voice of reason in regards to interracial in this business, both in the United States and internationally,” Steele said. “To this day there are girls who choose not to work with me because the scene would be interracial, but quite frankly, my black on black scenes are as successful and equally important to Mercenary. There are enough women available to shoot my interracial product; I personally do not get frustrated with the current situation. I will address it when asked to comment, but I will not defend our industry from a truth that is as ugly today as it was when I started in 1998. I will say that it is quite interesting that European girls never have a problem with interracial when they arrive here. Matter of fact, the majority of white girls in my productions are not American anyway and I always get better scenes. This is not politics, it is business.” Steele also wanted to emphasize that while he’s been offered roles from the major feature studios in adult, he does not have the time to commit to their shooting schedules. “To participate in the feature productions that have been extended to me would be extremely difficult based solely on my lack of availability,” he added. “I cannot separate myself from Mercenary for two or three full days during a work week. I have enough to do between distribution, production and administration. Perhaps three or four years ago I would have had the time, but I may not have been a big enough star at that point, despite having won multiple Male Performer of the Year awards.”