I was thrilled to read last week that adorable young Malia and Sasha Obama would be joining President Barack and First Lady Michelle (and of course, First Granny Marian) in Paris and later London for their first European trip. It did my 40-year-old heart a world of good to know that these charming mesdemoiselles would be serving as America’s junior ambassadors to a continent obsessed with their glamorous parents—and one thrilled to see our formerly “you’re-either-with-us-or-against-us” nation back in the global mix.
But politics aside, I was thrilled for these two African-American girls, ages 8 and 10, both getting a chance to experience what life is like outside the prism of the United States. Granted, these are kids of privilege. Even if their dad wasn’t the leader of the free world, they’re the children of extremely well-educated and worldly parents and had a chance to travel to Africa back in 2006. But as I’ve found over the years, there is NOTHING like foreign travel to open your eyes to the realities of your own country. I just wish I’d had the chance to discover this way earlier in life rather than starting in my 20s. I’ve certainly tried to make up for lost time, visiting nearly 30 countries since then!
Just imagine how different we Americans would be if we started engaging the world as kids the Obamas’ age. It sure would be hard for us to demonize folks in foreign countries as “the other” if we’d had a chance to stroll their streets and museums. Eat in their restaurants. Shop in their stores. Hang out in their parks and visit their schools. And the same would be true if kids from other countries had the chance to experience America in person, rather than through stereotypes and caricatures we export to them through popular culture.
And while I think it’s important for American kids of all races to have such exposure, I think it’s especially key for African-American ones. Whether affluent or poor, so often they grow up viewing their lives through other folks’ lenses, never realizing that there are places where they can just BE without being constantly defined (and often limited) by their color. It’s a freedom that’s hard to explain unless you leave America’s shores and spend time in other cultures where being black isn’t immediately seen as a liability. Which isn’t to say that racism and discrimination don’t exist in Europe and elsewhere, because they certainly do. But you don’t subconsciously spend every public moment waiting for some racially inspired slight, and that’s supremely liberating in itself.
So good for you, Malia and Sasha, getting out there and exploring this big, fabulous world of ours. And it’s good for the world to experience THEM, as well.