Travel and Race

When the subject of race comes up I automatically think of black and white, and I believe that is what many people think of as well, for example in movies, they are racially diverse when there are a handful of black people in them. Although looking past my narrow mindset there are so many races in our beautiful and integrated world and nation that face challenges and triumphs everyday.

Even though I am mainly focusing on black's because of the episode of Queer Eye, I also want to mention other races and how they are affected when traveling.

This first video is a black man talking about his experiences traveling and what he has faced during that process. He grew up in New York and his first international travel was when he was around 13 and his family and him were traveling to the Dominican Republic. This is where he encountered his first experience of racism or bigotry. His family and him were standing in line to get breakfast and his black aunt was making toast and there was a white woman behind her getting frustrated at how long his aunt was taking to make the toast, and she said "Jeezus, do you want the toast to be as black as you?" This is when he saw his family take time to gather their thoughts and how they were going to respond to this sort of situation, especially having their son/nephew with them and how he would be affected by this. He said that his family had to be cautious because "we knew we were in a foreign place at this time and we knew that any of our actions were weighted with the color of our skin, and we needed to be cognizant of that." Because of this experience that he has as a child, he now thinks about safety, and how he is perceived because of how he looks when traveling. Even something that he thinks would be friendly could be seen as threatening because of the color of his skin.

This article is an interview with a visible muslim, and she talks about her experience traveling while wearing a hijab. Kareemah is a Nigerian American and she lives in Louisiana. She is a visible muslim which means she wears a hijab, this is called a visual muslim because the hijab is a symbol of the religion, so you can tell they are muslim just from their appearance. She has visited 6 countries in the past 2 years including Turkey and Morocco. She says that you will probably get frequent checks from TSA, however the hijab is a great ice breaker for people who don't know much about the islamic religion. When she travels she has to do extensive research on the place and make sure they are open to muslims and the culture or islam, especially because right now a lot of people are not the biggest fan of islam. "I try to stay cautious and vigilant during my travels abroad and at home." Kareemah has a blog called the hijabiglobetrotter, and she says "The goal for hijabiglobetrotter is to shine the light on under-represented stories and people. It is also to encourage Muslims out there to follow their dreams." She doesn't want anything to stop people from traveling whether that be their religion, family, society, or the media. Do the research and follow your dreams.

These are two sources I wanted to bring in to bring the idea of travel and race together. Overall travel while being a person of color can be difficult and there are overall more hoops to jump through. However that does not mean you should give up and not do it and not visit places you have dreamt about. Hopefully in the future our planet will be in a place where it won't matter what you look like or what you believe in, you will be able to be completely free and adventurous. I hope these stories will open your heart and mind as much as they did for me. These stories show that people just want to be happy no matter who they are, they will do that they love even if it is a little harder sometimes, people humans are persistent and strong and go after their goals.