"With literature, sometimes a book is presented in the media as being, say, a Muslim story or an African story, when, essentially, it's a universal story which we can all relate to it, no matter what race or social background we come from"
About this Quote
Her phrasing (“say, a Muslim story or an African story”) points to media framing more than authorship itself. The subtext is about gatekeeping: when a book is marketed as “for” a demographic, it quietly signals who it’s “not for,” shrinking the audience before anyone opens the cover. The word “essentially” does a lot of work, insisting the core of the story is not its cultural wrapper but its human stakes - desire, fear, ambition, family pressure - the stuff that travels.
At the same time, the quote brushes up against a current debate: calling something “universal” can be an invitation to empathy, or it can flatten difference and treat specificity as a niche flavoring. Johnson seems to be arguing for a both/and. Let the story be rooted - Muslim, African, anything - without being reduced to that root. Her real target is the lazy media shorthand that turns lived detail into a genre label, and then wonders why readers don’t cross the aisle.
Quote Details
| Topic | Book |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Johnson, Shawn. (2026, February 18). With literature, sometimes a book is presented in the media as being, say, a Muslim story or an African story, when, essentially, it's a universal story which we can all relate to it, no matter what race or social background we come from. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/with-literature-sometimes-a-book-is-presented-in-85781/
Chicago Style
Johnson, Shawn. "With literature, sometimes a book is presented in the media as being, say, a Muslim story or an African story, when, essentially, it's a universal story which we can all relate to it, no matter what race or social background we come from." FixQuotes. February 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/with-literature-sometimes-a-book-is-presented-in-85781/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"With literature, sometimes a book is presented in the media as being, say, a Muslim story or an African story, when, essentially, it's a universal story which we can all relate to it, no matter what race or social background we come from." FixQuotes, 18 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/with-literature-sometimes-a-book-is-presented-in-85781/. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026.
