Whites Writing About Blacks

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http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/08/opinion/seymour-django-spike-lee/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

This debate really interests me, because my novels include African American characters and I try to write them faithfully and sensitively.  According to some, I have no right to do so.  Thankfully, James Baldwin says it's all right.  I was trained in new criticism, where only the text matters.  If the text works as literature, then the race or gender of the writer shouldn't matter.  Criticize what I write, not my skin color over which I have no control.

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