When prompted with the idea that his work does not culturally identify the Blacks or non-whites in his science-fiction, Delany considers his early work with this perspective (including Nova) and decides that this notion, made by Greg Tate, may be accurate. In order to justify these cultural inadequacies of his earlier science fiction, Delany explains: "some of that earlier work of my yearned to be at - was suffused with the yearning for - the center of the most traditional SF enterprise, well: I can admit that - there - something is dead on in Greg's criticism" (Dery 746). What one can deduce from this claim is that traditional and more readily accepted science fiction novels generally hold inaccurate depictions and representations of the black race and its inherent cultural characteristics. Even when writing in a genre where the presence of others in the plot is greatly relied upon, it seems that the cultural identities of races, predominately of African-Americans, are disposable and unnecessary to these fictional plot development.

Dery also proclaims that especially African-Americans should be able to identify with the readily-used concept of the other. He explains, "[...] African Americans, in a very real sense, are the descendants of alien abductees; they inhabit a sci-fi nightmare in which unseen but no less impassable force fields of intolerance frustrate their movements [...]" (Dery 736). If the African-American race has so many innate connections to the science fiction genre, why does their accurate cultural characterization seem to be a dangerous subject to touch for a beginning or unconfident novelist? Doesn't it seem that this genre should favor African-American identification over white or unspecified identification?

In Nova, when initially describing the twins Lynceos and Idas, Delany highlights the differences between their skin color to each other, rather than their skin color to the skin colors of others around them. While he describes Lynceos' flesh as "translucent as soap" and Idas' flesh as "the color of an emperor grape," there is no mention on their Africanist cultural backgrounds or their features as compared to others around them. It is later made known, with the mention of their third brother, that the family is African-American (or African), but the reader can only deduce this through immediate skin color, not specific cultural identity.

Although Delany admittedly agrees with Tate's dissatisfied opinion about his earlier work and does make the Africanist presence more well known in his later novels, the reason for his earlier downplaying of these presences is still surprising. In order to make a name for himself in the genre about the other, Delany wrote excluding much of the other from his plots. While we cannot ask why Delany followed this the traditional science fiction norm, to not properly represent African-American culture, we can ask why this misrepresentation is the traditional norm.