Reginald Dwayne Betts Responds

There has been a huge uproar about the line “Don’t write about 
being white” and so very little about my quotation of  Louis Simpson:

Don’t believe the reviewer who wrote: “I am not sure it is possible for a Negro to write well without making us aware he is a Negro; on the other hand, if  being a Negro is the only subject, the writing is not important.”

I find it interesting that many white people are upset about being told not to write about being white, but generally silent on Simpson’s comments.

My point was to make white people begin to consider how absurd it is to be told that who you are, if it is your subject matter, inevitably weakens your writing. I was being ironic. Sort of: my point was also to suggest that what’s good for the goose ain’t good for the gander, so to speak. A better conversation would have been had if Steven Antieau had noticed my contradiction and interrogated it.