by Jerelyn Eddings

About the author: Jerelyn Eddings is a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report, a weekly newsmagazine.

For Roy Johnson, a senior editor at Money magazine, the latest indignity came after a recent dinner at a fancy restaurant in the wealthy New York City suburb where he and his family live. First the parking valet handed him the keys to his Jaguar instead of fetching the car. Then an elderly white couple came out and handed him the keys to their automobile, with the instruction: “It’s a black Mercedes-Benz.” Johnson responded that his own car was a black Jaguar, but the Mercedes-Benz owner didn’t seem to understand. “It took him a while to realize that I was not a valet,” says Johnson. “It didn’t matter that I...