To the Editor,

I am writing to take issue with your article, An Author Canceled Her Own YA Novel Over Accusations of Racism. But Is It Really Anti-Black? (slate.com, Jan. 31, 2019) by Aja Hoggart. The article discusses the controversy surrounding the publication—or non-publication—of Amelie Wen Zhao’s debut young adult (YA) novel, Blood Heir. In late January, a fellow YA author took to Twitter to point out what she considered anti-black racism in Zhao’s forthcoming novel—the book includes a young woman who dies at a slave auction. Though her race is never explicitly stated, some readers interpreted the character as black. Following an explosion of criticism on “YA Twitter,” Zhao decided to indefinitely postpone the publication of her novel, the first part of a six-figure deal for a trilogy.

This article downplays the seriousness of the situation, and the ultimate merit of the accusations. The intense outrage on Twitter may have been overblown, but it shouldn’t be dismissed. However, the situation isn’t clear-cut; Zhao immigrated to the United States at the age of eighteen, and her experiences growing up in China informed her book. She states that the slavery and indentured servitude described in the novel are based on the indentured servitude and human trafficking that she witnessed firsthand in her native China and surrounding countries growing up. Zhao’s cultural background may well have limited her awareness of the cultural connotations surrounding slavery in the U.S. For this reason, and because she has clearly learned from the situation, she should be given a second chance at publication.

Still, it is vitally important to remember that while Zhao may not be from the United States, and while her story takes place in an Asian-inspired fantasy world, the book was set to be published in the United States. The slave auction scenes it contains are troubling and, in our cultural context, morally fraught. Hoggart’s article overlooks this fact, as well as the fact that regardless of Zhao’s intentions or the technicalities of whether or not the book is anti-black, it can be perceived that way. This could have a harmful effect on the American teens who read it—a real concern, and one that Hoggart utterly fails to consider.