This makes so much sense. I'm biracial (black father, white mother), but I was adopted and raised in a black family. When my mother had to go to a nursing home in her late 80s, she used to scan the entire place, staff, residents, whomever, for people of colour. There were none to be found. Until one day, a new orderly was hired who happened to be black, and if you could have seen her eyes light up and her smile! It was as if seeing him released all her tension, her shoulders lowered, her eyes weren't darting around everywhere. I never really thought about why she was like that until reading what you wrote, and now it makes perfect sense. Thank you for that. :)