Kevin as an Ally I find Kevin interesting because he serves different purposes for different audiences. He’s the embodiment of a good white character in a novel full of bad ones, to appease conservative readers who believe discussions of slavery are attacks against white people. Yet to someone paying closer attention, Kevin embodies the many flaws in white liberalism, making his character development in an even more racist society both a lesson in allyship and an interesting thought experiment. His entrance as a character is pretty rocky due to his tendency to put his foot in his mouth and his struggle to fully comprehend the danger that Dana is in for much of the book. Dana is acutely aware of everything that could go wrong for her when she journeys to the past, whereas Kevin clearly can’t fully put himself in her place to understand this. Much like many white people today, Kevin struggles to understand the full scope of racism because he has never had to experience it himself, w...