A good way to begin would be with a definition of the term that appears in the question prompt and which is central to Morrison’s critical analysis of American literature. Morrison speculates on “whether the major and championed characteristics of our national literature ... are not in fact responses to a dark, abiding, signing African presence.”

Morrison argues that the mythic set of traits and assumptions informing the American cultural identity is actually dependent on this “real or fabricated Africanist presence or persona.” In reflecting on American literary history, Morrison describes it as “the preserve of white male views, genius and power” and concludes that this presence is “crucial to their sense of Americanness.”

She goes on to tell us, however, that “The United States is not unique of course to the construction of Africanism,” adding that all the other geographic settings mentioned in the question prompt “have participated in and contributed to some aspect of an “invented Africa.”

The task is to find what Morrison says is different about the way this false set of beliefs manifests itself in the United States and how it is unique compared to the rest of the world. The first reason given, consistent with the purpose of these essays as works of literary criticism, is “The literature of almost all these countries, however, is now subject to sustained critiques of its racialized discourse.”

In other words, the United States is unique because it has yet to perform an honest critical examination of its literature and culture, which for centuries has been reliant on maintaining the racist fictions associated with the “Africanist presence.” From this point, Morrison goes on to explain further about America’s “exceptional” relationship with its racist history and give related examples of the consequences of its resistance to self-criticism.