When I 1st moved back to Texas from Virginia I was working at a juvenile detention center and most of the black people there were guards and did not work in the administrative office.
I read the newspaper most times during lunch and sometimes I would answer different questions about a something somebody was talking about, geographically, pop culture, literature,
They would look at me like I had two heads.
I frequently would hear how well spoken I was, did not hear this very often on the east coast.