What's been Noah's worst encounter with racism?
When he first moved to the states when he was 14, he had to go to the eighth grade before he was allowed to move on to high school, and the middle school was predominantly white. Like there were only a few asian kids and three black kids. He was the only latinx in the entire school, and it was even worse because he still had a heavy accent, heavier than the one he has now, and he would slip between english and spanish without really realizing it. The kids were actually really nice about it, and they tried to help him out, and most of the teachers did too, but not all of the teachers. He had stayed after school one day to get help and the teacher he had gone to for extra help had stepped outside the classroom to talk to another teacher, and he could hear them laughing at and talking about him. He vividly remembers hearing one of them say “I don’t see why people like him don’t just stay where they belong in Mexico” and “The kid probably doesn’t even understand anything we’re saying anyway, he’s stupid. He doesn’t know english.” And he didn’t stay any longer after that, he just left out the room through the other door and went home. He hasn’t told anybody about what was said, but it’s always stuck with him. He’s proud to be Cuban of course, and that’ll never change, but ever since then he’s kept a tight lock on when and where he speaks spanish and he’s been trying to get rid of his accent because he’s self conscious about it.