Withholding in the sense that Shadow is the POV character but doesn't seem to self-identify by race, which reinforces the validity of the first thing he said about it.
And I'm not being angry or defensive - I said elsewhere I think OP has a good point that I'm still thinking over. At the same time, I think the book's handling of race is rather weirdly indirect and seems to come out of a school of thought (which I've encountered in some writing workshops, pretty much always from white people) that a character's race shouldn't be mentioned directly. More recently I've seen the argument made by POC bloggers that writers who include POC characters should make those identities explicit & unmistakable. I find it interesting to see what approach Gaiman used in this book (which is almost 15 yrs old at this point BTW) and I'm not a huge fan of it. But that's a matter of interpretation & personal preference. I love this book & Gaiman's work overall, I just personally find this part frustrating.
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And I'm not being angry or defensive - I said elsewhere I think OP has a good point that I'm still thinking over. At the same time, I think the book's handling of race is rather weirdly indirect and seems to come out of a school of thought (which I've encountered in some writing workshops, pretty much always from white people) that a character's race shouldn't be mentioned directly. More recently I've seen the argument made by POC bloggers that writers who include POC characters should make those identities explicit & unmistakable. I find it interesting to see what approach Gaiman used in this book (which is almost 15 yrs old at this point BTW) and I'm not a huge fan of it. But that's a matter of interpretation & personal preference. I love this book & Gaiman's work overall, I just personally find this part frustrating.