Morrison's main interest here is in stimulating study of how (white) authors have used blackness (an artificial blackness; she uses the term "Africanism") to contrast with and thus support ideas of freedom, self-control, etc. Right. . . this book dates from 1992, and it's probably a mark of Morrison's success that the idea isn't surprising. I'd be curious to see some next steps in this direction. . . to what degree, I wonder, have any more recent white writers succeeded in escaping this paradigm?