Author and Columnist Helena Andrews on Being Black Abroad
"With my boobs and your black, we're gonna get into a lot of trouble," said my friend Stella as we walked through a gantlet of
Italian men on what passes for a "street" in
Florence. They ogled her just below the shoulders and me just above, staring straight into my eyes but never daring to say anything intelligible.
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I know this feeling well, having traveled in
Europe and
Asia. In South
Korea staring passers on the street were very common, as were hostile stares and outright gaping. An old women once walked directly in from of me in a
subway station and stopped directly in front of me staring into my face. Many others simply spit in the street as I or any other back person walked by. It is quite a nasty and unsettling experience.
Having grown up in sophisticated
New York City this kind of behavior seems down right ignorant and backward. If you are black and you travel you have to get used to it. Western racial prejudices have been spread around the world. Local ignorance and ethnocentricism coupled with curiosity abound wherever you travel.
John H. Armwood
