“So we’ve got a black in the family,” her father concluded with bemusement. He had just finished describing how someone on his side of the family had married and had a child with a Black man. He also has “a Black friend” whose existence is invoked whenever he needs to prove (to himself) that he isn’t racist. He talks down to and belittles this Black friend, a tall and gentle man who does not perform the kind of masculinity that…
