How do you feel about African American Literature being classified as a genre?

Question:

How do you feel about African American Literature being classified as a genre?

I don't know about every bookstore, but In Borders the African American Lit is seperated from the rest. Baldwin, Ellison, Hughes, Morrison, Wright, all seperated. How do you feel about it?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Hmmm... that's kinda weird to me...
I think "African American" literature is simply literature, period.
Unless you picked out the slave narratives (non-fiction) and labeled them their own genre. And then I'm not sure I'd call it African American.
So is Hughes (Langston right?) also found in the poetry section?
I don't know. If I'm going to buy a book, my first thought is not, "What color skin does this author have, I might need to go to the 'African American' section." Furthermore, it almost gives the implication that only African Americans are going to read that genre...
I guess maybe I am somewhat biased. I do agree with another answerer of yours... he/she said something to the effect of "there's not a racist around every corner."
I believe that, but at the same time, I'm not completely comfortable with the term African American. A long-time friend of mine irately lectured me, about twenty years ago, concerning the fact that she was not African American, but rather American. I've had a different view on the term ever since. Why should she be labeled because she's black? Nobody calls me a European American...know what I mean?
Okay... sorry, had to rant. It's just that sometimes I think all of our "political correctness" leads to more subtle segregation.