A kind of affectionate racism prevailed among the Delta gentry. They had kind, paternalistic feelings toward black people and a genuine appreciation for black culture, but they didn’t want a black man dating their daughters or sitting down to eat dinner at their table, because that wasn’t the way things were done, or meant to be. These were just a few rough starter categories, and within them there were innumerable variations, nuances, spillovers, and contradictions.
