The Color Purple Questions

Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.

Women are not treated well in The Color Purple. Is their treatment a gender or an ethnic identity issue or both?
Is Alice Walker sexist because the men in her story are almost universally mean? Should she have placed more emphasis on race rather than gender?
Is it important that Nettie’s exile took place in Africa?
Does it add or detract from the story that Celie – and uneducated woman writes sporadically – narrates the novel?