Black Male Writers Experiencing "Extraordinary Moment"

Black male writers are experiencing "an extraordinary moment" of mainstream attention in the world of American literature, Ayana Mathis, a best-selling black female novelist, said.

If so, it runs at least somewhat counter to recurring assertions that American publishing is one of the strongest remaining bastions of white male domination in U.S. society.

"The last decade has seen a burgeoning multiplicity in America's literature, with gifted black men writing novels, poems and plays of great import," Mathis said in the Dec. 2, 2018, edition of "T," the New York Times Style Magazine.

Enumerating several top literary awards won by black male authors, Mathis said that "what matters here, what's more striking than the sums exchanged or the awards received is the intense focus on works by African-American men in America's artistic landscape, even as the problems of race and racial violence continue to plague the nation."

Indeed, one reads repeatedly that the attitudes expressed and postures taken by U.S. President Donald Trump have served to encourage White supremacist initiatives.

"Now in 2018, blackness is as lethal to black people as it ever was," Mathis said. "Even as African-American writing currently experiences unprecedented mainstream appeal and critical recognition, the focus on black expression has another, uglier face: a deadly obsession with black bodies."

In addition, some believe anti-Semitism is on the upswing in the U.S. at present as well.

"To be sure, there is much to celebrate, but these recent developments are not without complication," Mathis said, noting that a surge in mainstream attention to blackness and its literature isn't unprecedented in periods of American crisis. And it is possible that at least some "gatekeepers" (presumably liberal white males) expect black males to focus mainly on racism and oppression, she said.

"I wonder if, in the annals of history, this extraordinary period of artistry will find a name, or a unifying sentiment that codifies it as a movement," Mathis said.  Earlier in the article, she had pointed to the Harlem Renaissance that sprung up in the wake of WWI and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.