Mainstream nineties movies (except those by black filmmakers like Spike Lee) followed one of two rules: either race was unnamed or it was clumsily portrayed in a way that resisted all nuance and good sense.

  “So what then, day jobs?” “Not in this life.” “What then?” —Pulp Fiction   When I was a child and Americans asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told them, “Famous.” This was enough to elicit laughter from the interrogating …