The truth is the honor of it
BUCKNER: [Laughter] I just don’t want to assume. I want to be more transparent about why I was asking that question. Part of me thinks it’s important to have black writers and to have black women writers—whatever they write, whether they write about their experiences or not—for a political reason. I could write about a lot of things, but I just feel like my story of being a black person in America and the people who have carried me to this point, to be here talking to you, that that story has not been rendered correctly. Is that [black woman] consciousness in your writing? Or you just don’t think about whether you are a black woman? KINCAID: A black woman? BUCKNER: Yes. And whether you are honoring your history? KINCAID: No. This is where you and I would part because [Laughter] I admire your feeling and obligation really, a loyalty to honor the people you come from, but I don’t take that view in my work. Literally, I am a bastard. My parents were not