Let's Talk—Have You Faced Any Racism During Your Travels?
I've been mostly lucky throughout my travels however I want to share two incidents with everyone today.
USA 2011
I was walking along the Las Vegas strip taking pictures and I sat down opposite the Belagio hotel after taking some pictures of the fountain. I was exhausted lugging my SLR clamped down on the heavy tripod. I was watching people walking past me and wondering where I could go next to shoot some pictures.
This small group of African-Americans walks past and one of them makes a comment calling me a brown-mofo and something else I don't clearly remember now. He was clearly high and smoking a joint with his friends as they walked past cussing all the time, not only at me but at others sitting nearby. Based on their looks and demeanour I felt like they were part of a gang or just trying act tough.
Soon 3 locals about my age sat down next to me. We got talking and I shared with them this incident. Moments later that same guy who hurled abuse at me ended up being arrested right in front of us! I'm not sure of the laws but it seems they found drugs on him.
He had also hurled abuses at other people in the area and maybe someone may have called the cops on his racial abuses. I didn't really feel bad because I anticipated something like this would happen at some point in my travel.
On the bright side I spent the night hanging out with my new friends and exploring the area and it turned out just great!
Rest of my travel through the United States was amazing and I have met some incredible people there who are my friends even today!
Amsterdam 2016
I was on my way to meet my friend @sjennon for some drinks and was waiting at Amsterdam Central train station. It was 27th or 28th of November and the wind was extremely cold. I was standing behind the window for a good 20 minutes near the exit door.
As I was just hanging up on my call with Shannon confirming our plan, this guy in the picture below walks towards me and spits on the window! I was shocked and annoyed but again these things can happen and it didn't really affect me directly as there was a window between us.
When you're abroad and traveling you can't really expect the local law and enforcement to help you. I just let it go in both occasions but took a picture as a grim reminder that things can go unexpected and not everyone is the same. Besides India has so much racism and I've faced worser situations in my own country to feel bad about either of these situations.
I met Shannon later that night and we celebrated my last couple of days in the Netherlands. Alls well that ends well eh?
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I'm from India in case you are wondering about my nationality. I've been to 10 countries so far and 7 of them have been solo travel. In the year to come I hope to visit another 10 countries or more. Hopefully without such experiences!
Have you faced any racism during your travels. Feel free to share it in the comments below or if you post about it link me up.
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I agree that there is racism and I think there always will be. However, I think of racism as coming at different degrees and even the less nice ones can be mitigated if we meet them with the right attitude.
For instance, I too have travelled all over the world, to every continent and I am not going to bother counting how many countries.
Especially in the more (to me) exotic countries, I avoided going to any of the tourist areas, preferring to eat in local restuarants - and meet locals who are not part of the tourist industry.
Maybe the funniest personal experience was when I was in Athens, Greece. I am of Greek origin, but I grew up in East Africa (at that time, a British colony), but I went to a Greek school and speak Greek fairly well.
I spoke to a Greek at a coffee shop and after we talked for a while, he asked me whether I am Japanese. I asked him how he guessed and he told me I speak Greek with a Japanese accent. He then had some pretty idiotic questions to ask me about Japan. I used films and books I've read to answer him - and where I did not have an answer, I used my horribly fertile imagination.
Later, I drove from London to Italy with a Caribbean friend (colleague). I'm from Africa and we speak of people being black, but they are brown, compared to him. It was summer and we drove with the top down. Being curious, I asked him, "Do you get tanned if you stay in the sun?"
He pulled at the mirror, looked at himself and as if horrified, he exclaimed, "God, I'm black!!!"
We arrived at a village in the mountains (Italy) and the children at the taverna kept running to look at him and then they would run away, screaming and laughing. A little girl of 6 or 7 stopped to ask him, "Why are your lips so big?"
"So that kissing can feel nicer."
She asked him to kiss her and then she ran away laughing and, I suspect, was the hero of the kids for that night.
My friend, Jim, showed that he has a big heart, which is why he remained a friend until I left London, and inside me, he is still a friend.
We have become over-sensitive, because those who want to cause trouble have done all they can to initiate feelings of hate between us. Do not let them win. Just accept that as long as there is no malice intended, we must make space for those who are different and wonder about us.
Those are some incredible stories. I've been away for a bit and missed replying to your comment. I like the way you handled every situation that came your way. I found the first one to be quite funny! :D
This post shows that you are a very sensible person does not compensate to react with violence in situations like this complicates still more, I am happy that has a window to protect you in this second case.
Over the years I have developed a thick skin. But sometimes it is just a little too much to ignore.......
I am actually being kicked out of my new place for that reason(racism is not the whole reason for it though, but it is certainly a part of it.)
I hope you didn't get kicked out of your place...
Btw, I've been away and planning my trip, seems like I will have 2 days in Warsaw as per my current plan.
Thankfully I got a few more weeks ..... they can't force me out until the one month notice ends. After that I 'll move back into a hostel accommodation until I can attend steemfest in Krakow. After the Steemfest, I'll be going back to India to visit my parents and will search for a more more permanent accommodation in Warsaw, when I come come back again in January.
Man it'd be amazing to meet you! I am on Telegram as hashcash_ssj. Whenever you feel like it, just drop me a message :-)
I am quite shocked, i am originally from Cincinnati and grew up with friends from India, two of which ended up being doctors. You will find messed up people everywhere..... so sad firepower..
It's never a nice thing to see when you are travelling but unfortunately that is the reality of the world right now. People don't like to see differences between people and never have to be fair. If you've only seen those two incidences in your travels then your not doing too badly.
All we can do really is to try and be better than those people who think that it's okay to persecute others because of how they look. We get a lot of tourists where i live and i always enjoy meeting them as each person brings something different with them. Some of the most interesting people that i've come across were just on their travels and some i'm still in contact with. We will never totally eradicate racism as some people will never learn but i do think that it's better than it used to be. In my country anyway.
Hey @firepower, In fact, I traveled to Dubai and Qatar. On these occasions I have faced great difficulties. I read about the details of your visits to the United States and the United States in the Netherlands. Sometimes I'm worried about some things. Because, we are in a very difficult situation because of drug traffickers. In some cases, we face ethnic violations. But travel time gives you a great opportunity to explore different friends. It's really amazing. However, we must always endure patiently with patience.
I am sorry to hear about what happened to you. I travel all the time and I was lucky I've never experienced racism. My husband is Dutch but his parents are originally from Indonesia so you can imagine he doesn't look like European. When he came for the first time to my home town people were giving him strange looks and were laughing at him because he didn't speak the language. Well, he did speak 5 other languages and those guys just 1 but it didn't matter to them. Now he speaks the language too and if somebody tells him something he can react quickly. Usually they don't do it anymore. So sad that people can't treat each other like humans.
I think Nelson Mandela said to a small African girl who asked him about racism that he doesn't see a colour, he sees a human.
Thank you for sharing! It's important to bring up such issues!
Thank you for sharing this line. I wish more people saw things like this.
Yeah I've faced something similar once...
I'm surprised that nowadays there are still people not seeing things like this to be honest..
Was the spitter also a black guy? I have had a few incidents myself. One was sort of funny, I unknowingly wandered into Oakland from Berkeley one time and someone exclaimed "hey look, a white guy!" and I realized I had passed over an invisible border. Another time I was driving in my city late at night:
"what seems to be the problem officer?"
Nope, I don't think I was speeding sir.
-you didn't come to a complete stop at the stop sign
I am pretty sure I did come to a complete stop at the stop sign because I saw you sitting right there
-Ok, well what are you doing here?
(this is because I am white )
I live here, right around the corner.
-Oh, OK, have a nice night
That was quite a story there haha.
In my case yes both times it was a black guy.
I've been lucky enough to never have encountered racism whenever traveling. In fact, people have always been super nice to me as a foreign person wherever I traveled.
I feel a lot of anger and sadness whenever I learn about episodes like yours...
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The cure for racism is knowledge, and honestly the most inspiring man alive today on this topic is someone that everyone should learn from.
I do apologize @firepower for sharing a video on your blog, but I suspect you've never seen this, and if you don't get the chills down your spine when you see this man's courage, then I don't know if you should visit the Doctor, but that is possibly needed.
This man is my hero.