What's up with the white people in Native Son?

In Richard Wright's Native Son, a primary aspect of Bigger's journey/life/story is how he interacts with white people and vice versa. Thinking about it, I can hardly think of any interactions between Bigger and a white person that can be considered 'normal'. The white people are either talking down to him condescendingly, taking advantage of him, or treating him like a novelty, with one possible exception (I'll get to that later)

At first, it may be easy to discount this question with 'Well, they're just racist', and sure, many of the white characters in the book are unequivocally racist (namely all the police, people in the justice system, politicians, etc.), but what about the characters that are apparently not racist (or at least openly racist), even 'anti-racist'? Let's think about Mr. Dalton; while it may seem like he was just Bigger's employer, something wasn't completely right about him. He felt the need to prove that he wasn't racist (by flexing his donations and involvement in the NAACP ). While I am not completely sure if Bigger is uncomfortable, grateful, or intimidated by the Dalton's charity work, it still seems clear to me that the point of mentioning this to Bigger is so he doesn't think of him as a racist (even though he perceptualizes poverty in Black communities by overcharging them for rent). He still doesn't treat Bigger like a normal person. 

What about Mary the other communists, though? They don't seem racist on the surface, but they still can't have normal conversations with Bigger. They use Bigger as an 'in' ; they see him less as an individual, but more an outlet to black culture. During their late night drive, Bigger is clearly uncomfortable the whole time: "He flushed warm with anger. God damn her soul to hell! Was she laughing at him? Were they making fun of him? What was it that they wanted? Why didn’t they leave him alone? He was not bothering them." They can't comprehend the idea that Bigger might have any trouble or hesitance in talking to them. Lastly, I want to talk about Max, the only white character who seems to be capable of talking with Bigger normally. Max disregards their differences and lets Bigger talk how he feels comfortable. However, is Max doing this for the purpose of racial equality or for his own political leverage? (Rhetorical question, that's another separate complicated topic, but important to think about nevertheless).

To answer my own question, it's probably a more simple answer than it seems; at the time this book was written/takes place in, in places like Chicago, black and white people hardly lived physically close, especially with the extreme wealth inequality. Thus, racial integration in communities was at an extremely low level. Mary even mentions this when talking about how little she knows about black people: "'They’re human.... There are twelve million of them.... They live in our country....In the same city with us....'" Does this make Mary and Jan's actions 'okay'? No, but it may explain it.