Toni Morrison On Black Literature And The White Gaze

“In American literature, African American male writers justifiably write books about their oppression. Confronting the oppressor who is white male or white woman. It’s race. And the person who defines you under those circumstances is a white mind … African American women never do that. They never write about white men. I couldn’t care less – I didn’t want to spend my energy refuting that gaze.”