This article focuses on American racism and its impact on writers and publishing processes in the literary world, dealing with Percival Everett's novel Erasure (2001). The novel displays the thematic restrictions that black writers faced with while writing their works, as a result of racism. Of course, the issue of racism has been addressed in hundreds of literary works, but they mostly describe the wounds caused by racist attitudes on the social and individual level. The new, striking, and interesting point in the selected work is that even the people who have professions such as writers, editors, and publishers, and who are considered and accepted to be an intellectual community, have adopted a racist attitude and apply it without hesitation. The protagonist/author of the novel is expected to write about the lives and problems of black people because he is also black. When he writes about other subjects, he is disapproved, excluded, and even subjected to pressure to write about the experiences of black people. What Everett wants to show to his readers in his novel is that racism is not unique to an anti-intellectual culture. Whereas in previous times, black people in American society have struggled with discrimination, poverty, and low life standards, they have to struggle with oppression in the intellectual and cultural spheres in the 21st century, additionally. Thus Everett proves in his novel that racism still persists even in the 21st century and even in the intellectual settings. These issues will be analyzed through Afro-American critical method.
Key Words: Racism, Afro-American criticism, Percival Everett, Erasure, Black people