Let's have some real talk. And I'm n not hashtagging this.

I've told this story once before, but it bears repeating in light of the past couple of days on here.

As I've said before, I'm a white Cuban male. We Latins come in all colors. When my beloved wife first met me, she had no idea I wasn't just another white guy. Now, of course, other Latins take one look at me and KNOW I'm one of them. But the point is I easily pass for garden-variety white boy.

1/?

And, let's be frank: I've benefited from this. I *always* wear my Latinidad proudly. But I don't get pulled over by cops for "driving while brown". I know I have privilege.

But once someone knows my background, well, sometimes the shit comes out.

At my former library I would engage in conversation with a white male patron. We'd have good discussions about art, culture, and the like.

One night I was on the reference desk, and he came into the building, and we began speaking, as always.

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And then—and I swear to God this came out of nowhere—he offered this "compliment": "I'm so surprised that someone of your background has achieved what he's achieved," or words to that effect.

Now, like I said, if someone asks me for my background, I unabashedly say "Cuban". I have no reason to be ashamed of my Latinidad. And I know I had told him this before, since we had discussed Cuba on occasion.

I asked him what he meant.

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And he went on to explain how impressive it was that someone from an impoverished, immigrant background, where scholarly pursuits were not highly valued, could achieve a master's to allow me to become a librarian.

I tried to explain to him that in Cuba my parents were middle-class, and here they worked their asses off to make sure that I and my brothers had everything we needed to succeed academically. In my family there was NEVER a question of the three of us not going to university.

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I may as well have been talking to a wall. He didn't get it, and kept on with his amazement, as if I were some exotic creature who must be praised.

I bit my tongue. He left, and I got up and went to the customer service desk. That night my aide was Rosalyn, a Black woman. I looked at her. She looked at me. And I said, "That did just happen, right? I wasn't imagining it?" She nodded and said, "Yes, it did."

5/?