What I initially perceived as intellectual airs, I came to see as learned survival tactics, puffed-up shells that disguised parts of themselves that might otherwise appear just as unworthy as I felt in their company back then. It became clear to me that they were responding to pressure, whether consciously or unconsciously, to reflect the characteristics of the wealthy White world they were emulating. The world we all competed in every day. I’d eventually learn the necessity of wearing those same masks at different points in my own career.
