Competence Proves Scary in People of Color

In talking with friend X today, they mentioned that a white co-worker had informed them that they find X scary. In explaining their fears, co-worker said that X is so good at their job and so smart and that is intimidating. I can see why X might be intimidating. X is certainly amazing, very smart, and very together, but the implication seemed to be that it was not these things alone which were so intimidating. Rather X's superb job performance combined with their intelligence, combined, I would argue, with their racial identity were the key factors.

X is a person a color. If X were a white individual, I don't think the comment would have been made in quite the same way although co-worker might still find X scary. Nor do I think if X were bad at their job, lazy, or stupid would they be scary. I think co-worker finds competent intelligent people of color scary--however, unconsciously. Obviously I can't prove it based on the one comment, but it reminds me of the ways "articulate" is thrown at African Americans--as if there's some shock there. Is that because co-worker subconsciously thinks if a person of color outperforms a white person, then the white person is ridiculous because how else could such a thing occur? Is that because X threatens co-worker's sub-conscious assumptions about people of color? Is it because co-worker fears X will see through them and discover some secret flaw?