Merry reminds the family of themselves. Of their privilege. Of what they have. In America they are considered brown. You become attached to that. You are given a name and you respond to it. They are brown in America. There is something self-righteous that lives alongside that marginalization, the mispronounced names, the Your English is so . . . , the sideways glances in department stores. But there are browner bodies out there.

