‘Real censorship’: Roxane Gay responds to American Dirt death threat row

The author argues the debate around Jeanine Cummins’ controversial novel shows how people are threatened for ‘daring to have opinions’

As writers and critics reveal the death threats they’ve received in the wake of the uproar surrounding Jeanine Cummins’ novel, American Dirt, Roxane Gay has called for people to “realise what real censorship looks like”.

Authors began sharing the threats to their life following the cancellation of Cummins’ tour for her controversial novel American Dirt, over concerns for her safety. The novel has been widely criticised for its stereotypical portrayals of Mexico and Mexicans, with the Chicana writer Myriam Gurba one of the first to condemn Cummins for her “overly ripe Mexican stereotypes”, and for her prose “taint[ed]” by the “white gaze”.

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