Liberals treated him (and other blacks in legal and administrative Hollywood work) as Others, and congratulated themselves for their special treatment...and they had NO idea how utterly inhuman that was. (A black female lawyer at a major studio reported she was repeatedly asked "How did you get this position?" something no one would ever think to ask of a white lawyer working at a studio.)
My friend was ultimately fired (and defended by, among others, Robert Osbourne, who I believe now hosts movies on Turner Classics)for writing a piece in one of the Hollywood dailies about how Hollywood congratulated itself so much for being progressive, yet where were all the movies starring blacks? (It took Spike Lee to show Hollywood that just because Hollywood had a couple of black stars, it was criminally behind the times in terms of behind the camera talent--I recommend some of Lee's later movies to FReepers, whatever you think of his talent ((yet another conservative friend of mine has worked closely with Lee and says he's nothing but professional and personable, unlike a number of Hollywood a-holes I could name based on friends' experiences)).)
Anyway, once my friend actually wrote an article saying, "Yeah, all your TALK is nice, but where are the JOBS, you people who employ talent?" he was fired over a nothing issue less than a month later.
You can imagine why, all these years later, he didn't blink when people pointed out I'm a conservative and he shouldn't like me. All those good liberals we knew then vanished when my friend encountered hard times, while I gave him a few bucks here and there while I was living on pretty meager wages. That's what FRIENDS do--people who see other people as Others who they can use as political pawns seem to have a problem with that. (I think my friend reached detonation level when one of these (white) liberals accused my friend of...anti-black racism.)
Sorry to drone on and use you as a sounding board, but this issue is something I'm writing about, and it so happens I had a long conversation with my friend today and am reading a biography of Samuel R. Delany (who's basically a socialist, but whose observations on race are surprisingly down-to-Earth for a commie :).
Wait until your black friend is accused of being a "racist" by a black liberal! My own (progressive) brother once accused me of that very thing, when I dared to criticize The One.
I couldn't help but laugh.
It's pretty hysterical, actually. Liberals just cannot fathom how a black person could possibly have their own mind, and draw their own conclusions regarding politics and culture. We're supposed to march in lockstep with the state-approved religious orthodoxy of liberalism, like good little sheep.