Whiteness called him nigger afronta all his white-ass buddies, but he called him Winston when they was alone. That gave Steel the shiver-his-timbers. He would prefer it if Whiteness called him nigger all the time. Him not saying it when they was alone made it clear he don’t give a shit about the color of a man’s skin. He’s just performatively racist, which is worse than real racism. Or maybe, if he did call Steel a nigger when they was alone, Steel would be thinking it’d be better if he don’t think that way in private. The grass is always greener on the other side of a white man, that’s what Steel always says. He’d make a great cow.
