Susan
asked:
I don't understand why Alix thinks that Kelley has a "fetish" about Black women. Can't he just have a type - a type of woman that he is attracted to? Just as some one is attracted to brunettes or redheads, or attracted to tall women or women who are like scotch or women who golf doesn't make it a fetish.
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Naomi
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spacey
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Mehreen
Having a "type" of ONLY people of color, and not just to date, but to be friends with, is a fetish. It is not possible that a normal human would not find other races to interact with or be friendly with, even if he only dated women of color. Even if you are attracted to a type, when that type is a particular race, and a particular race that is not your own, it typically comes from a stereotypical place where you don't seem as a human and just interchangeable dolls or placeholders.
Kim Goldstein
Black is a race not a type.
Emily Taylor
It's not so much a fetish about dating black women and have black female lovers/girlfriends as much as it is about the whole picture of who Kelley associates himself with and the way he acts and views himself as a result. The fact that he surrounds himself with and goes out of his way to befriend and date black people is the issue, which Alix points out when she confronts him - how he thought that the black athletes in high school were cooler and he tried so hard to be friends with them and be admitted into their group. The way he uses the n word in front of Emira and feels a need to insert himself into the racial confrontation in the grocery store to prove that he is "woke" and "one of the 'good ones' [white people]".
Amy
That bothered me also. They had a great relationship. He actually loved her and treated her friends well. It didn’t seem a fetish anymore than a black woman who dates white men or a man who prefers tall women or a woman who only dates workout buffs. Sometimes a problem is found where one doesn’t exist. It was needed to describe a character and he was the bookend to Alix and her behaviors with Emira in between as the innocent.
Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship
Alix thinks that because she hates Kelley and therefore thinks the worst of him. Yeah, Kelley can have a type, and Emira herself didn't think Kelley was fetishizing her. But Alix and Kelley were at war and racism accusations their weapon of choice.
At the same time, Kelley did seem to think he knew better than Emira about her own life, but then it seemed like he usually dated women with more confidence and purpose than Emira.
At the same time, Kelley did seem to think he knew better than Emira about her own life, but then it seemed like he usually dated women with more confidence and purpose than Emira.
Gaynor Hughes
I asked the same question and the answer for me Is "I don't know". Coming from a white perspective, choosing only black partners might seem like any other preference but when race comes into it, I do wonder what motivation is behind the preference. I'd like to hear from black women on their experience as I'm not qualified to know or say.
MaryAlice
I saw no indication that he could only "get off" with black women, so, Alix was wrong about Kelley having a fetish.
Maria Slips
I just read this book. I agree with you. Also, Alex was a jealous bitch.
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