Last night, John and I paid a babysitter $40 so that we could go see I Am Not Your Negro. The theater had a bar and we ordered two White Russians. When the bartender asked what movie we were seeing, John said the one about Baldwin. I asked him why he didn’t name the title of the film. It just felt like too much, John said, to order two White Russians for two white Americans and then top it off by saying I am not your negro.

Eula Biss, Having and Being Had (2020)