My first job out of high school in the early 2000s, was in a meat factory. I lived in a primarily Latino (specifically Mexican and Salvadorian) area and thus worked along side many undocumented immigrants. At this particular meat facility, ALL of management was made up of "good ol' boys". These "good ol' boys" were sexist, openly racist, and tremendously blatant because lucky for them, nearly 9 out of 10 workers were Latino and a huge part of them did not speak English.
This post shouldn't be about the things they said or did because I think most of y'all are realists and know it wasn't good. However, to the point of OP's question, I had a moment on my first day that no one knew I spoke Spanish and English, except for the hiring manager.
I came in at 5am and first order of business was to berate an employee. As I opened the cooler door into production, I heard loud talking in one of the wash rooms. There I saw one of the idiot managers talking down and making fun of an employee. I could tell how uncomfortable it was as his nervous, intermittent laughter and eyes that hinted humiliation gave it away.
I was still drowsy walking in but as soon as I saw that, something inside me snapped. I locked eyes with the manager and stared into him. He probably did not think I knew what all he had said so it was even more powerful when I told him to leave the gentleman alone. The tone I used that day was one from a sudden burst of anger and I remember how my voice echoed loudly and full of anger. For a second I did not recognize myself.
I don't recall all I said but I did not mince words and ripped into him, even brining up the fact I know about anti-harassment policies and that he is making the worker clearly uncomfortable - something I could report.
His eyes opened up with that look of surprise/shock because he was so full of himself, and his racist ignorance, he thought no bilingual Latino would ever set foot in their business. Unfortunately, I knew that it was an empty threat because I could not bare to jeopardize the employees livelihood with reporting the incident.
Nonetheless, that day changed me from a lais·ser faire individual, to someone who realized that one person can stand up to do the right thing right out of high school.