A mixture of poems and short fiction, Jean Toomer’s Cane has been

I don't seem to understand why everyone isn't bothered about the wrong usage of 'being' here! 'Being' can be used when
1. passive voice: My cat is being a brat
2. Subject of a sentence: Being a wizard doesn't guarantee you powers.

Period! There is absolutely no valid case of using 'being' to define attributes of a thing or a person.
Here 'others being X and Y' is incorrect.
However, other choices do not come close to E. For example, 'Black American' has to be used instead of plural, 'including Richard Wright' is wrong as you a including a person in category of books.
But I don't seem to understand well the usage of 'being' here. Can anyone explain? What is the exception here to use 'being' in the question?
Thanks in advance! Regards.

Can options A and B be eliminated on the basis of "Black American" and "a Black American", though I don't know how to eliminate?

Thanks in advance.

This question is based on Parallelism.

There are three books and their authors mentioned in the sentence. They must all be mentioned with a similar structure. The novel and author first mentioned in the sentence is “Jean Toomer’s Cane” and since this is mentioned in the non-underlined portion of the sentence, the other two novels must also be mentioned in a similar manner.

(A) Black Americans—the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
These expressions would only be parallel to Jean Toomer, author of Cane. Furthermore, since the focus of the sentence is the novels, not the author, this structure would not describe the three novels. So, Option A is incorrect.

(B) Black Americans—including Native Son by Richard Wright and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
This option puts the focus on the novels, but the phrases are not parallel to the phrase Jean Toomer’s Cane. The appropriate phrases would be Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. So, Option B is also incorrect.

(C) a Black American—including Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
Option C has the same error as Option A, with the difference that the word ‘including’ is used. The word ‘including’ is not preceded by a dash since it implies that members of a certain group (which is specified by the noun preceding the word ‘including) are being specified after the word. So, Option C is incorrect.

(D) a Black American—the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man
Option D contains the same error as Options A and C. So, Option D can also be eliminated.

(E) a Black American—the others being Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
Since this option is the only one that mentions all three authors and novels in a parallel manner, Option E is the most appropriate.

Jayanthi Kumar.
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(A) Black Americans—the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man

This sentence gets it wrong in two key spots:
1. Black Americans should be singular. These are all classic works of literature that were each written by a single American - Jean Toomer, Richard Wright, and Ellison, not multiple black Americans
2. Violation of parallelism; the start of the list refers to the book Cane so the other two elements in the list should be Native Son and Invisible Man NOT Cane, Wright, and Ellison

(B) Black Americans—including Native Son by Richard Wright and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Corrects the second issue in A, but still has the first issue (in A).

(C) a Black American—including Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man

C-E all get the plurality of Black American correct, but this one here still violates the parallelism error

(D) a Black American—the others being Richard Wright, author of Native Son, and Ralph Ellison, author of Invisible Man

Violates the parallelism error

(E) a Black American—the others being Richard Wright’s Native Son and Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man Correct

Fixes both issues in A.
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I read a lot of post where people are stuck with being. Let’s go back to our insight about the meaning of the sentence: First, we learn about Jean Toomer’s novel Cane—one of the three best novels ever written by a Black American. The others, then, are the other two novels, not the other two authors. The sentence does not claim that these are the three best writers, only that certain novels are the three best novels.

Answer (D) has the correct meaning: the others (two novels) being Native Son and Invisible Man. Answers (A) emphasizes the authors, not the novels; eliminate these choices.

The correct answer is (D).

Start paying attention to meaning: you’re looking for clear, logical, unambiguous, and non-redundant sentences.

**Note: comma including looks like a comma –ing structure, but it isn’t. Comma including is a noun modifier; it’s an exception to the typical comma –ing adverbial modifier structure.

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