Does ‘traveling while black’ (or brown) help in the nonwhite world?

by

"Traveling while black" (or brown) can be a lovely thing in many places in the world. Here, my friends Carol and Karen and I rest on a bench inside the Vatican Museums during a late 2007 trip to Italy.
"Traveling while black" (or brown) can be a lovely thing in many places in the world. Here, my friends (from left) Carol and Karen and I rest on a bench inside the Vatican Museums during a late 2007 trip to Italy.

 

When in Riyadh... here I am, garbed in an "abaya" during a business trip to Saudi Arabia's capital city in late 2007.
When in Riyadh... here I am, garbed in an "abaya" during a business trip to Saudi Arabia's capital city in late 2007.

I’ve had this theory for a long time: While we African-Americans sometimes feel our color can be a pseudo-“liability” here in the States, it certainly can be an asset once we leave our native shores and travel abroad. I was reminded of this last week when President Barack Obama gave his potentially game-changing speech in Egypt.

It was a striking sight to see TV cameras pan across the crowd gathered inside Cairo University to hear him. Most of the faces were some shade of brown, from café au lait to cinnamon to chocolate. From just looking at them, any of ‘em could have been a cousin, aunt or uncle of Obama’s. And while few mainstream news outlets have called it as such, one HUGE reason for our president’s broad worldwide appeal is the fact that he looks like so much of the world.

And since people of color make up a majority of the globe’s population, it makes sense. We know Obama’s also beloved in many parts of Europe, but when Latin Americans and Africans and people in the Middle East see this man, in many ways, they see themselves.

Retired South African Archbishop and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu articulated a similar thought in an Associated Press article published yesterday. Referring to Obama’s upcoming trip to sub-Saharan Africa next month, he said that Obama’s Kenyan roots and ethnicity will automatically give him a level of credibility with African leaders. (Obama will reportedly visit Ghana, his first stop to this region since being elected U.S. president.)

“They can’t accuse him of being a neocolonialist,” Tutu’s quoted saying during a visit to London. “Complexion helps.” (emphasis mine)

It most certainly does—and often, in very tangible ways.

I remember friend Ricki Stevenson, African-American expatriate and founder of the fabulous Black Paris Tours in France, telling me about this phenomenon years ago. Decades earlier, she and her family had lived in the Middle East, and when traveling through airports there, she’d be greeted, “Hello, my sister,” by local employees.

And as comfortable as I have always felt traveling through Europe, the first time I visited a non-Caribbean overseas country and found myself in a place where more of the folks looked like me than NOT was Saudi Arabia. I traveled there in late 2007 during a business trip for my company, decked out throughout the trip in an abaya borrowed from a former Chicago Sun-Times colleague and later in a more opulent one given as a gift from my company’s country executive.

While in Saudi Arabia, I met a businessman who was a dead ringer for my uncle Ras down in Pine Bluff, Ark. I was greeted as “sister” by a traditionally dressed businessman during one of my escorted office-building stops in the big port city of Jeddah. And if I didn’t open my non-Arabic-speaking mouth—except, of course, to utter general courtesies such as “shukran” (thank you) or “Aasalaamu Aleikum” (hello)—I could do a decent job of “blending in.”

While I’ve NEVER been one to suggest African-Americans limit their travel to places where there are other people of color, it’s nice to visit countries where the folks look like they’d be at home at one of your family reunions.

I’ll bet President Obama would agree.

 

(Young) Americans in Paris and London: The Obama girls take Europe by storm

by

Talk about a heavenly experience. Along with President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha got to privately check out the famed Notre Dame Cathedral this month during their first trip to Paris. All kids should be so lucky!
Talk about a heavenly experience. Along with President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama, Malia and Sasha got to privately check out the famed Notre Dame Cathedral this month during their first trip to Paris. All kids should be so lucky!

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.

The joys of traveling solo—Part Une

by

Here I am, standing in front of the Mediterranean Sea with lovely Villefranche-sur-Mer in the background. I sure can see myself taking up permanent residence in Paradise....
Here I am, standing in front of the Mediterranean Sea with lovely Villefranche-sur-Mer in the background. I sure can see myself taking up permanent residence in Paradise....
Here's the view from my INCREDIBLE rented "Riviera Experience" apartment, the Waterfront Penthouse. Can you imagine waking up to a view like this every morning? Tres magnifique, I must say!
Here's the view out of one set (yes, there were THREE sets!) of French doors at my INCREDIBLE rented "Riviera Experience" apartment, the Waterfront Penthouse, in Villefranche. Can you imagine waking up to a view like this every morning? Tres magnifique, I must say!

For some folks, as the old song by Three Dog Night goes, “one is the loneliest number.” They can’t stomach the idea of dining alone and think that going to a movie theater or party without a “plus-one” (famously played out on an episode of “Sex and the City”) will brand them as permanent losers.

How sad. They’ll never understand the visceral joy many of us find in traveling solo.

In fact, I’m such a passionate believer in it that I wrote a first-person piece last month for the Chicago Tribune Travel section’s special Europe edition on “traveling solo in Europe” (don’t hate me, Chicago Sun-Times friends!).

I again experienced this fabulous freedom during my recent return trip to the super-charming village of Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Côte D’Azur—better known to many Americans as the “French Riviera.” Talk about a fabulous place for a chica to get away by herself. I’ll chat more later about this fab week-long adventure… but in the meantime, here are a couple photos to make you drool. Is this place paradise OR WHAT?

Learning the language of the locals

by

I’m hardly a linguist, but I strongly believe that when you visit someone else’s country, you need to speak their language—literally. Not that you need to be fluent in español or français or Arabic or Thai, but it shows a real sense of respect if you at least TRY to start your conversations off with pleasantries and polite phrases in the local tongue. Nothing says “ugly American” (or Australian or fill-in-the-nationality) like expecting those you meet at stores, at the train station, on the street to automatically speak the language you speak at home.

And since foreign-language phrase books are easily portable—and hardly cost a fortune—there’s no excuse for not buying one, learning some basic words and phrases, and using them once you arrive. To me, this is as essential to trip-planning as picking up foreign currency and packing those electric-appliance adapters that allow you to use your curling iron and laptop in other countries.

I’ve found that by merely speaking the words for “hello,” “goodbye,” “how much,” and the all-important “please” and “thank you” when in countries ranging from Greece to Turkey to Saudi Arabia has made all the difference in how I’m received. Those I encounter know I’m not from their country, but the fact I’ve at least TRIED to learn the essentials of their language mark me as a traveler , not merely a tourist.

Of course, if you can spare the extra bucks and the time, what’s ideal is taking a basic course in your chosen country’s language. Here in Chicago, programs offered by the Alliance Française de Chicago and Italidea (from the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago) include brief introductory courses for those traveling to their home countries. Even the affordable Discovery Center (whose language classes vary from great to not-so-much) can hook you up with language basics in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Arabic.

I know not everyone lives in big cities, but I’ll bet nearby community colleges in your area offer a beginner course in frequently used languages like Spanish, French (and these days, Chinese and Arabic). It’s a great way to enrich your trip before you even leave home—and so much the better if the class addresses that country’s culture as well as its lingo.

I’m curious: Has it made a difference in your travels when you’ve tried speaking other folks’ languages abroad, even when you weren’t fluent? Did it make your trip any better, or worse? Please share!

‘Traveling While American’ just got easier….

by

I don’t know about you, but I was glued to the TV and news Web sites last week, watching President Barack Obama’s (and First Lady Michelle’s) every move as they took Europe by storm. Pride swelled in me—and tears occasionally welled in my eyes—as I saw these smart, strong, self-confident African-Americans from MY South Side of Chicago interact with and YES, dazzle leaders from around the world, including the Queen of England.

How cool was this, to see these two Americans stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the globe’s most important people and pass with flying colors? And how fabulous was it to see the reception they got from "regular folks"—Michelle with those adorable girls in that London school, the president when interacting with thoughtful young people during those town halls in Strasbourg and in Istanbul?

Having traveled extensively and often through Europe and other countries during the past eight years, I knew that America’s policies were highly unpopular with many I encountered. While to their credit local residents were never rude to ME because of their dislike of then-President Bush, our wars, etc., during my most recent trips overseas, Europeans and folks of other nationalities sought me out, telling me how excited and hopeful they were about our new president.

I wish I could have been on the streets of London; of Strasbourg, France; of Prague when the gorgeous First American Couple made their appearances last week. How heartwarming it was to see regular Europeans—and their leaders—wholeheartedly embrace these two who represent the best of what America can be.

I’m returning to the south of France later this month (more on that later!!), but can’t wait to chat with the locals and hear their thoughts about American and world politics in the Age of Obama. For a change, this traveling sista will no longer be hesitant to pull out that blue U.S. passport while standing in overseas customs lines. Yes, America is back—and for those of us who consider ourselves citizens of the world, it sure feels good!