When Kendrick Constant glanced at his phone one afternoon in 2018, he noticed dozens of text messages rolling in from a cluster of retired fifty-something investment bankers trading jokes and logistics for a birthday celebration in Manhattan .

A young, Black, recent college graduate who was just starting a career in finance, Constant was mistakenly added to the text string. But while most people would have silently backed out, the then 22 year old leaned in and found himself absorbed into a close-knit circle of people twice his age.

After someone in the WhatsApp chat finally sent a photo of the group gathered at a restaurant for the much-discussed birthday dinner , Constant opened the image, cut his own headshot and carefully photoshopped himself into the scene, smiling alongside the

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