In the middle of the conversation, unnoticed by me and the two gentlemen talking, a white Anglo woman was listening in on the conversation. She approaches the two of them and says "That's so good that you're giving him lessons!" (She was speaking to Will about Juan). When Juan said "No, ma'am. These aren't lessons. We're just speaking.", she replied, "Oh, so he's practicing then". At this point, Will said "No, ma'am. I'm just speaking it with him".
The details after this point are pretty irrelevant to the point of the story.
The woman saw the two speaking Spanish. She makes the assumption, for whatever reason, that the light skinned guy must be getting taught by the darker skinned one. In her mind, light skinned equals one thing, dark skinned another.
Now, I know what the responses to this might be. "Maybe she listened to how the light skinned guy spoke and assumed his was less fluent, therefore being a student of the language". To this I say nay, that as being fluent speaker myself, I can vouch that this young man is as fluent as one gets.
"Most Hispanics in Texas are darker looking, so isn't it just natural to assume he would be teaching him?" Again, this is wrong. It might very well be true that most are "darker looking", but why would that assume that the other person was a student of the language? Doesn't that comment imply ignorance as to the origins of the language to begin with? Is Spanish not of European origin? Do we know where Spain is?
It is ridiculous colour coded assumptions like these that create issues in society. Issues that are never spoken about. To the onlooker, the person not involved, or the person making the assumption, it may seem pedantic or "too PC" to get bothered by something like this. But isn't that what puts the monogot majority in the U.S. in the privileged position?
Just sayin'...
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