It all started with a harmless Cuba comment on Venmo, a monies sharing app that allows you to split purchases and repay people as long as those people are not Cuban, from Cuba, or are named Cuba, Kuba, or anything related to Cuba. Repaying a friend for a Cuban sandwich is a big no-no with Venmo. 

Over the past three years, Venmo and I had a series of heated exchanges regarding my Cuban-related payment comments that actually had nothing to do with Cuba the country, but Cuba the word. Continue reading →