Why had Mom sounded so shrill and hysterical? Why had Pappy been so dismissive when he spoke about the Caribbean? Dad had been okay, but he certainly hadn’t defended Carine. Neither had Anton. In fact, the four of them had closed ranks against her. And then suddenly, swiftly, he knew—if Carine had been a white girlfriend arguing exactly the same points, they would’ve indulged her, cast a bemused eye toward her politics, maybe even admired her sensitivity toward the earth’s poor. What’re you, a Commie? his father would’ve teased. It was Carine’s skin color, her blackness, that made her suspect,
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