I can tell you it was definitely both reasons. I live in a rural area in TN. Pre covid, my ex and I (biracial couple) could not go into a bar without every single person going quiet and staring at us, rude service, people wouldn’t open the door for me and my brown baby (I’m white) while I never saw other women have this problem. And now with masks. I get made fun of, yelled at by passing cars. If you go into a small gas station with a mask on, you feel like you’re going to be hung up. Everyone stares, they make quiet jokes, and even if you’re the only person there, you’ll wait forever to be waited on.
I’m really sorry that happened to you guys. My friend and her husband are both Mexican, but he’s light-skinned and passes for white, while she is brown-skinned and could never pass. She has told me so many stories about how she is treated vs how he is treated and how badly they are treated as a couple in certain areas. It’s so disgusting and disturbing. I really feel for them and for all my non-white friends. It doesn’t have to be this way.