TWB - Travelling While Black

There was just no way I was not going to broach this subject...

I find myself very fortunate to have been born and raised in a city like Montreal. Walking down the street is like a colorful parade of people from all over the world, with a mixture of different languages as the city's soundtrack.

I have been travelling around for some time now, and I must admit that I was quite surprised at how homogeneous some countries are...and the reaction I was faced with when I came in contact with the inhabitants of those countries.

Exhibit A: China  

I went to China in 2008, just after the Olympics. I was very excited to go as this was my very first time taking the plane on my own for such a long haul. I was so excited that it didn't even occur to me to think or worry about how I would be treated. But I found out pretty quickly! When I arrived at the school where I was interning, the children would stop dead in their tracks to look (read stare), point, laugh, whisper to their friend, out of shear sight of me. Mind you, I was in the suburb of Beijing, where any non-Chinese looking person would be stared at (ask the two Dutch who were also interning with me). One day, I went to visit statues in a town that is 5 hours away from Beijing. Two guys started to follow me around from a distance. Eventually, one of them came closer and asked if he could take a picture with me! Now that was a first but definitely not the last of it! Depending on my mood I would either take the picture or say no and turn my head away. Another time, I had my hair pulled by a woman in a bus. When I turned to give her a dirty look, she started asking me questions on how I take care of my hair (the same way you do, lady. With water, shampoo and conditioner!) 

One of my many instant Chinese 'fan'! 

Exhibit B: Mexico

Last year, I went to visit a friend who had just moved to the south of Mexico.The first night I arrived, we went out. On our way out of the bar, a guy asked to take a picture with us. By looking at my friend, I could tell that she didn't know him and was as surprised as I was. We obliged, but before I knew it, we were having a photo shoot with that guy and his friends! By the end of my week, I had lost count of the number of times I was either asked for a picture or catching people sneakily taking a picture of me (not cool, at least ask!). It was as though I was an attraction in a museum or part of the landscape. And what do they do with those pictures?! Show them to their friends and family, like one shows their vacation pictures ( 'This is a picture of the Eiffel Tower. Oh, and this one here, is a picture of me with a Black woman. Amazing, huh?!' )  Why would it be OK to photograph someone on the basis that they look different from you? I could not imagine approaching a particularly short person and ask to take a picture with them, just because they are short! It's just rude.

Exhibit C: Argentina  

In preparation for my extended stay in Argentina, I did A LOT of reading, particularly with regards to the situation of Black people in that country. Well, to date, Argentina is probably the whitest country I have visited, which is both understandable and surprising. Surprising, because their biggest neighbor, Brazil, has a sizeable population of African-descent outside of Africa, understandable, because if you read a brief historical overview of Argentina, you will see that the government of the mid-1800 was systematic in eliminating the African presence in the country. But that didn't stop me from going and I was prepared (or so I thought) to face any kind of 'attention' I was to receive. To make a long story short, I was constantly face with the following: 1) people generally assumed that I was from Brazil and 2) the men in Argentina are big on catcalling, piropos in castellano and no woman is safe from it. In my case, a lot of it was focused on the color of my skin ( 'hola morena/ moracha!' 'hermosa morena!' 'que linda morena!'...and these are the ones I understood!). I get it. I'm 'brown'. And you don't see brown women walking, doing their groceries or having coffee on a daily basis. But do you really feel the need to point out the colour of skin?! Needless to say, it became very tiring to walk down the street of Buenos Aires, because of that unwanted, constant, attention. I wonder if Black men received similar attention... And I still don't know how I feel about what I saw in a bakery window one day:

Hmm...is this appetizing or offensive?  

Overall, would I say that I have been treated differently, and I suspect the color of my skin had something to do with it? Of course I have (i.e. being followed the moment I entered a store in China, and they were not even trying to hide it). Is this limited to countries outside of North America? Of course not! (those TSA people in American airports can't take their hands off my hair...because, you know, I just might be hiding something in there! Seriously?!). Is racism alive and well? Unfortunately, it is (for the deniers out there: get your head out of the sand!). Will that stop me from travelling? No, but it will definitely influence how I travel (with someone as opposed to alone, like my trip to Lebanon.). The color of my skin, as superficial as it may be, will always be a factor that shapes my perception of others and how I am/ will be perceived and treated. A lot of racism is based on fear and ignorance. I see travelling as a way to let the world know that we (Black people) are not all the same, that we don't all fit the (generally negative) stereotypes perpetuated in the media. Concurrently, it broaden my mind about other cultures and countries. Mark Twain said it best:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

So keep on travelling! :)