I saw multiple people point this out on twitter, and then many people (predictably mostly white lestat fans) getting angry and saying they're reaching and making stuff up. This show doesn't do race-blind casting and is usually very deliberate in depicting how race impacts the story and the characters and their relationships. It feels very pointed to me that all the men that Lestat has been shown to be excessively jealous of are dark-skinned men of color, starting from Jonah in s1. I saw some people say he's so upset about Armand in the clip because Armand killed Claudia, but he literally says he could understand better if Louis had gotten together with Santiago, who also killed her. Lestat sees Santiago a lesser evil and a more palatable option for a relationship than Armand. He mocks Louis and Armand's relationship with innuendous comments implying their relationship couldn't have been sexually satisfying, kind of in the same way some fans act like Armand isn't a 'man enough'. Immediately after this argument is interrupted Louis touches his lawyer's arm and Lestat is Distraught
(source) (sidenote it never stops being funny to me how everything Lestat feels just shines from his face the least mysterious vampire ever)
I think people often take Lestat's suggestion he doesn't see race, it's just a human thing that doesn't matter to him, too much at face value as it clearly not true. He's completely aware it. The very first thing he says to Louis in the first episode is about his race and asking how he got in there. He uses fetishistic language about Louis and Lily and their skin color and romanticizes them as misfit beauties. When cheating on Louis he chooses the affair he maintains for years to be with a white woman because he knows it would feel particularly hurtful to Louis (i'm certain that was an intentional choice from both writers and Lestat in-universe). Lestat of course doesn't see himself as racist in any way and i think he would be very offended if someone called him that (like he was when Louis said being called a fledgling felt like being called a slave in s1). He thinks racism is wrong, nonsensical and tasteless. But i think he's also like many people influenced by highly racist culture(s) he's lived in for his whole life, and carries some ideas at least subconsciously. In the same way he seems to understand the abuse he experienced from his father was wrong, but then becomes a patriarchal abuser himself and refuses to see some of his actions toward Louis and Claudia as wrong.
I think Lestat is very scared and insecure that Louis could be sharing things with other people that Lestat can never share or even understand. Jonah was an old love but he was also a connection to Louis' black community. This Lestat's anxiety is actually most clear with Claudia, another person who he was very jealous of and started to almost see as a romantic threat against all sense. Lestat was instantly uncomfortable when he realized Louis and Claudia could communicate telepathically but he couldn't hear them. This knowledge that his (black) partner and daughter would always share an intimate connection he could never be a part of i think was a major part of him becoming more and more resentful and controlling.
When Lestat says he could understand better if Louis got together with Santiago it's worth mentioning that in addition to being white Santiago also slightly resembles Lestat (iirc Ben Daniels confirmed it was intentional). I think it would in some way be less upsetting to Lestat if the other men Louis has relationships with would at least have something in common with Lestat. It would be validation to Lestat that he's something Louis could want and love. Instead what many people have pointed out and i think Lestat himself is noticing is that most men Louis is interested in don't look anything like Lestat or have much other similarities either. I think the guy in the bar in the beginning of s1 who freshly turned Louis wanted to eat is the only one who kind of had a similar appearance to Lestat. Lestat has built much of his identity and self-worth around his romantic and sexual prowess and being a good provider, and when those don't work he's terrified. What does it mean to his value if other people, including people he may look down on, can give all that to Louis and Lestat has nothing to offer?
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