Travel Baggage for BÉIS Travel Blog
When I was a little girl, my parents used to take me on nighttime drives to put me to sleep. Probably because I wouldn’t stop talking, but I like to think it’s because they knew I was born to travel. As I’ve grown older, I still find that I’m my most peaceful when I’m on a trip to someplace new. I’ve felt exploring new destinations to be a rite of passage, as do most Millennials and Generation Z folks. However, when I travel as a Black Woman -- whether in the United States or abroad -- I’m met with experiences that you can only know if you’re in this skin.
Traveling is -- for lack of better words -- dope! Exploring new destinations can be beautiful, exciting, enriching, and surreal. It can also be scary, nerve-racking, and disorienting. For a Black woman, in congruence with those mentioned above, it’s also invasive, political, and dangerous - especially when solo traveling.
Group travel is my favorite mode of exploration -- who doesn’t love exploring the world with friends?! However, having been in groups with mixed demographics, I’ve seen how my skin tone and accent change how I am treated. For instance, we might all arrive at the same airport with the same destination in mind, however, when it’s time to show our passports, my white friends will be lackadaisically scanned and sent through while mine will be scrutinized. I can recall an occurrence when I arrived in Mexico and was standing in the passport check line for International security. I noticed a white family that was on both my initial and connecting flights. They went up to the counter and were waved through with cursory glances over their documents. On the other hand, I was glared at, looked up and down, and then asked the question...
FIRST IMPRESSIONS?
“Soooo...where are you from?” The answer is never, “Texas” or “Los Angeles,” since what they’re really asking about is my African descent. There’s always a look of disappointment on their faces when I tell them I’m simply a Black American from Texas or live in Los Angeles. In these situations, I often wonder: Should I lie and say I’m from Nigeria? I have a lot of Nigerian friends, maybe they’ll believe me. Should I tell them that it’s possible that I’m from Africa, but my ancestors were slaves, so I truly don’t know exactly where I’m from? I always decide to give them an uncomfortable little giggle and say, “Just Texas, yeehaw!” (People that aren’t from Texas love the nod towards cowboy culture -- I’ve never actually seen a cowboy, and I promise I don’t ride a horse to the grocery store.)
Then there’s the hair situation. For me, doing my hair every morning is like creating a masterpiece: artistic, time-consuming, and not to be tampered with. At the airport, I’ve had to give up that mantra. For the texture and the artistry of the artwork upon my dome must mean that I’m hiding some kind of contraband. Spoiler alert: I’m not, and now you just messed up my really cute ‘do...thanks.
Finally, there are the paparazzi -- or at least that’s how I see them. I don’t think that the rich and famous are particularly fond of being photographed without their consent, but they accept it as the price of fame. I, however, am neither famous nor being paid, so these particular paparazzi are doubly unwanted. The main people I am referring to are those who have likely never seen a Black person in real life. They’d come up to my friends and me asking for pictures with us, and at first, it didn’t phase me. I was like, “Ooooo; you think my outfit is fresh today. Please photograph away, be my guest.” As my awareness of their ask grew, I started to feel uncomfortable. What were these people going to do with my picture, and why did I have no agency in it? Would it be rude to say no though my body is my own and belongs to me, even in a picture? These are the questions that I still have. I never want to come off culturally insensitive, but today, I’m not a cultural attraction. I’m just a person.
REWRITING THE NARRATIVE
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
~ Mark Twain
When black women travel, it can be an incredibly nuanced experience.
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