Black Like Me

Zadie Smith writes that Americans “live in a mixed society” and that “there is no getting out of our intertwined history” [“Getting In and Out,” Review, July]. In her essay, the words “mixed” and “intertwined” function as euphemisms, since the pertinent question regarding race in any society is not one of boundary but one of hierarchy. Racial democracy is not radical democracy. That’s why inequality has persisted even as America has become more mixed.

Strangely, Smith’s essay does not criticize white readers for their unwitting commitment to the violence that underwrites their past, present, and foreseeable…