Have we been reading Toni Morrison all wrong?

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]There's this book I'm really interested in reading. It's called "On Morrison" by Namwali Serpell. She's a Harvard professor and she's been teaching Toni Morrison for 20 years. And I just listened to a podcast with her. It's making me even more intrigued to read the book. She talks about how Morrison never saw black people as a minority. It just wasn't her lens and black culture was very much the default in the center for her. And Serpell also grew up with that same perspective. She talks about the racism that Morrison faced, the accusations of being difficult or mean, and how that was really just people's discomfort with her work being repackaged as a personality flaw. She also talks about how Morrison pushed back against the idea that black authors need to translate their culture for white audiences. Finally, she touched on how um Morrison didn't want to be known as a monument. She would rather just been read and just wanted people to read. I highly suggest listening to the podcast. It's really insightful. The book came out a few months ago. So, if you've read it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.