For Discussion: Being black and traveling overseas
How differently are black Americans perceived while traveling abroad?
On the 16 December 2008 edition of her News & Notes show, Farai Chideya spoke with George Davis, president of Davis Broadband Group, an international media and entertainment consultancy, and Cheryl Grills, chair of the psychology department at Loyola Marymount University about their perceptions of how African Americans are received while traveling in Mumbai and on the African continent.
A timely topic for me, considering my rude awakening during a recent trip to Paris. It was during that trip that I realized many people outside of the United States do not discern between black Americans and white Americans.
Having worked at an international NGO for the past three years, I have quickly learned that for most people not from the United States, there is only one America and everyone from this country is simply American.
But for those of us who have spent lifetimes in this country, we can quickly debunk that myth.
Although our new President-elect built his campaign on the basis that there is not a "white America or a black America", but only the "United States of America", I think we (or "us'es" as I like to loving refer to those of us with darker skin living in America) know this is merely something we hope to achieve, rather than something that already exists.
The disparity between race in this country is something so commonplace, it has become accepted and uncontested by many - young and old.
Maybe the rest of the world will catch up with us one day in this realization.
What do you think?
This article was written on 24 Dec 2008, and is filled under For Discussion.
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Hmmm. I can't speak for the rest of Europe, but here in Switzerland (a country I truly believe is NOT part of Europe in a cultural sense), more often than not, people assume that I'm from Africa or South America (Brazil). Their mouths drop open when I say I'm from the US. Switzerland is sort of in a cultural warp; of the few blacks that are here, quite a few came from those continents. Therefore, quite a few Swiss people have no concept of black Americans. When I have told some that I'm a Yank, I've had to explain that my folks did not immigrate from somewhere else.
Hmm, I think on a general level yes Americans, regardless of race, tend to be lumped together. But Europeans do make racial and color distinctions and I realized this in scenarios (in Paris and in various Dutch cities) where it became clear to me that Europeans were only certain I was American if I spoke to them in English. As such, it became clear that whites in Europe were ok to lump me in with other black ethnic groups and/or nationalities in their country to such an extent that they spoke to me in Dutch and/or French expecting me to understand and were surprised that I A. didn't speak the language and B. was actually American (due to various stereotypes they have about Americans that couldn't be applied to me). In Paris, not only did I deceive and surprise white french, but also the African and West Indian people who assumed I was either metisse ( in this case, half African and French) or Antillienne (hailing from one of the Caribbean islands the French colonized).
Even in Brazil a country where nearly 50% of the population is of African descent, native Brazilians listening to my Americanized Brazilian accent tended not to guess I was American but just from a different Brazilian city they'd never visited or another Portuguese speaking country.
In terms of discerning between black and white Americans, it depends on who in Europe you are talking to. In Paris, among Ivoiriens and Congolese, they referred to me as American but the questions they asked me about blacks in America made it very clear that they were aware that there was a difference between me as a black American and white Americans.
Great blog entry.
@Fio: Africans here in CH tend to call me out as pure de American. One said that she could tell by the way I walked. I think I got where she was coming from with that.
Hi Raquel,
I recently discovered your site via Twitter and I've enjoyed reading your posts. I have to admit that as someone who has never been far from the U.S. (only to Mexico and Canada), this is a question that has always bothered me and made me anxious about traveling abroad. I've heard enough horror stories, so the first question I usually ask a friend who has return from overseas is: how do they treat black folks? I realize, now, that that very question is premised on my own cultural outlook as an American and may not make much sense to others. Nevertheless, I've always wanted to travel to Greece - right now I lack the funds, but I can't help but think that if I'm going to spend all that money and time traveling so far from home, only to see a white person clutch their purse and stare at me strangely.