Strangers

Have you ever walked into a place where you knew instantly, you didn’t really fit in?  For me, it’s usually places like Home Depot, Republican Party Fundraisers, and anywhere I have to make social chit-chat.  I had such a thing happen to me the other day that really got me thinking.

Have you ever walked into a place where you knew instantly, you didn’t really fit in?  For me, it’s usually places like Home Depot, Republican Party Fundraisers, and anywhere I have to make social chit-chat.  I had such a thing happen to me the other day that really got me thinking.

I just became a first time home owner and thought I would celebrate with a cigar.  So… I went to a cigar shop called Ora Cubano.  I don’t know very much about cigars and have even less experience in cigar shops.  I walk in and the place is breath taking.  Literally.  It was a cigar smoking lounge and it was filled with smoke.  After I “caught my breath” I noticed that I was the only white guy and that I was the only one not “Hablaing in Espanol.”

Instantly my mind raced to thoughts like, “Is everyone talking about me?”  “Am I allowed to be in here?”  “Should I break out my 5 Spanish sentences so that think I am an upgraded Gringo?” “Do you think they know I have Spanish friends?” and so on and so on.  All that to say, I noticed my “whiteness” and was very uncomfortable (not to mention being embarrassed that my whiteness was a big deal to me).

Since then, I have spent a lot of time reflecting on this experience.

1.        I am rarely in places that are all white, it is not unusual for me and my white self to be in the minority, and it isn’t even all that rare for me to be the only white person around.  However, those times are still usually in places that are still under the umbrella of “white culture.”  So why was I out of sorts this time?

2.       The people at Ora Cubano were nothing but friendly, helpful, and courteous to both my cigar naivety and my gringoness.  So why was I pushing paranoid and neurotic buttons in my head?

3.       I wonder if people who are often marginalized and/or “different” feel paranoid and neurotic all the time.

4.       I wonder how many white people ever experience this type of thing.  I wonder too if we did, how that would change our views and discussion on things like race, gender, immigration, politics, etc…

5.       I wonder how to live out Biblically passages and ideas like “The alien who resides among you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God" (Leviticus 19:34) and "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2).  It seems to me that Ora Cubano is doing a better job than many churches, schools, banks, and city halls.