Seems people can’t win. If she’d written about black people or neighborhoods, someone would have criticized her for “not telling the whole story,” or for writing about an experience she “couldn’t understand,” or for getting it wrong.

She wrote about what she knew, the time honored advice given to most writers, and she’s still criticized.

Neighborhoods back then, and sometimes still, are divided by just a block or two, and yet are miles apart culturally. Brooklyn used to be (might still be) a good example of that: Jewish neighborhoods, black neighborhoods, Irish, Italian. People were aware of each other, but didn’t necessarily mix, or even know what other people were experiencing.

Tyler’s characters are interesting, but strange. I never thought about how their introversion and isolation were somehow related to racism, but I don’t know anything about living in Baltimore either, being a West Coast person. I was aware about excluding Jews and Catholics from neighborhoods, though, and of red lining and other subtle forms of discrimination in real estate.

If her characters were happier and more outgoing, she’d have been criticized most likely for “living in a bubble of privilege.” I’m surprised more memoir writers aren’t taken to task for leaving race out of their books, even if they never had any experience with African Americans growing up.

Interesting nonetheless!