In a lavish apartment on the Upper East Side of New York City, Emily, a White woman in her early 30s, is painting her husband, Amir, who is 40 and of South Asian descent. Emily is mimicking the style and pose of Spanish painter Diego Velásquez’s Portrait of Don Pareja (1650), which depicts Velásquez’s slave. Amir notes that it’s odd that Emily is painting him as a slave, and Emily points out that Velásquez freed Don Pareja. She was inspired by an interaction that happened the night before, when a waiter treated Amir as if he were inferior because he isn’t White. Amir jokes that Emily ought to call her last boyfriend, who was Black and Spanish, to pose. He adds that José had made Amir look better to Emily’s family because, as he says, “I mean, at least I spoke English” (8). Emily comments that no one will see the painting, suggesting that she is not succeeding as a professional artist.

Amir’s phone rings, and he speaks with cocky self-assuredness to a client who is having second thoughts. Amir’s (very well-paid) paralegal calls on the other line, and Amir answers, berating him for a small mistake in the contract that had the potential to cost the client $850,000.