Black Is the Body by Emily Bernard

Author:Emily Bernard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2019-01-28T16:00:00+00:00

Inheritance

I like to say that I inherited Loree from John because it usually makes people laugh. But it’s true that Loree was part of John’s human dowry, just like his biological family. And somewhere back there, remotely, intangibly, I inherited all of their history, the way they have indirectly inherited mine.

Loree and John are both from western Massachusetts. John grew up in Lenox, in the Berkshires, which became known in the Gilded Age as “the inland Newport” for its mansions, known quaintly as “cottages,” summer homes for the wealthy. Loree, however, grew up on what amounted to the other side of the tracks, in Lenox Dale, a part of Lenox that was not featured in tourist brochures. When they were children, “the Dale,” as it was known, was the kind of place that produced a kid like Anthony, who, John remembers, stole a car when he was in the third grade and beat his teacher with her own ruler.

Loree inherited me, too. Initially we were “John’s friend” and “John’s girlfriend,” respectively, to each other, but a mutual affection grew quickly. What we admired first about each other was how much the other one loved John, who is more brother than friend to Loree. We loved the same man and we loved the same woman: John’s mother, on whom Loree has modeled herself as a woman and a parent. But then we got to know each other, and on it went. This is the story Loree and I share with others when asked about the origins of our relationship.

But Loree has her own story that contains questions particular to being a white person with an only black friend. “Do I like you so much because you’re black?” She has wondered about this, she tells me. “Would that make me a racist?”

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