Thank you for writing this. It’s brilliant on so many levels. I stopped reading King’s work many years ago because I was bothered by the way he portrays female characters and also his propensity to kill/torture children and animals in so many of his books (at least, that was the case in the late eighties/early nineties). But, being white, I overlooked the way he portrayed black characters. As one reader pointed out, your insights have made it impossible to “unsee” that this is a real problem. I really really really hope Stephen King reads this.