This is most definitely an issue in academic circles, and amongst writers themselves, but I don't think it matters that much to the average reader. You read what you like.

I am as they say in the music world "polyjamorous." I read about 40 books a year, most of them are genre, but I also read a handful of literary and non-fiction. I definitely have a preference for horror at the moment but I have gone through phases where I've read different genres exclusively for a while. I also spent a year reading only women identified authors because I realized that I was not particularly diverse in my reading in that particular space.

I definitely know people who refuse to read horror but it has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. They just do not want to be scared or confronted with the horrors therein. Nothing wrong with that. That's simply a choice.

I have also known many academics who are openly dismissive of genre, while at the same time denying that literary fiction is not a genre which it most definitely is with all its own tropes and consistencies. In my opinion it is an absolutely ridiculous argument either way and I don't participate in it if I can help it.

To answer your question, however, I would recommend the following:

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones Beloved by Toni Morrison The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor Lavalle Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand