What's up with John Grisham

I read a bunch of his books this past week. The Summons, King of Torts and Skipping Christmas. He baffles me. To hear him tell it the area around my office in DC is a place where the inhabitants will kill you as soon as look at you.

Skipping Christmas has this bit with the protagonists' daughter coming home unexpectedly and she's got this guy she wants to marry with her. He's from Peru. The parents flip out and actually worry about how dark his skin is. Then they are relieved when they meet him and discover he is a couple of shades lighter than the dad. They go on to be more relieved when they find out he went to school in Britain. As long as he's not too dark and he went to school in a civilized country it's okay that he is going to marry their daughter when he has only known her for less than a month.

I mean really, what the hell is that? Besides bigoted and appalling.