Comments on: Racism on the Road: Experiences of a Mixed-Race Couple

By: Oli

Oli — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 10:58:14 +0000

It is interesting that the women compared him to the devil. I have studied a bit of the history of racism, and much of it is rooted in religion. However it is very rare nowadays to see it expressed that way.

By the way I don’t mean to criticise religion, in many ways it is accidental, and due to interpretation rather than belief. For example 12th century church iconography in Britain depicted the Devil and his followers as black – despite the fact that black Africa had yet to be discovered. Also the figures had no ‘african’ features apart from skin colour. Constant references to light/darkness as good/evil, etc appear, such as Jesus being the ‘light of the world’, ‘He is good, and in Him there is no darkness’. The Qu’ran as well expresses that ‘hellfire blackens the skin’.

Anyway, I am glad you have ahd so many positive experiences along the way!

By: Dewi

Dewi — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:36:37 +0000

Thanks for sharing, Andy. I’ve never thought about it much, but travelling as a mixed raced couple can be an issue in some cases. I was just wondering if anyone has had any experiences with travelling as a mixed race couple in South Africa. I never wanted to go there, but I’ve met some really nice South Africans and everybody is telling me what a great country it is. Now I’m planning to go. The only thing I’m a tiny bit worried about is the racism. But maybe it would be good to go, because the more people will see mixed race couples, the more accepted it will get. About me, I’m a Dutch girl of Southeast Asian descent and my husband is white. We’ve travelled quite a bit, in Europe, South America, Russia, India, China, Northern Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific. People were friendly and open to us everywhere. In Russia we did not have any problems, but the people in St. Petersburg are not very friendly and helpful. Moscow was a lot better and Irkutsk was fine, so the more eastwards we travelled, the better it got. Ironically the only place where we really had problems was Southeast Asia.
Any thoughts about South Africa, anyone?

By: Genie

Genie — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:34:15 +0000

I returned to my hometown in the American midwest twelve years ago to work. On my first day in the employees lounge, I suppose I subconsciously noticed that all the ‘African-Americans’ were sitting over on one side, but didn’t really think about it. I sat down on an empty seat and inquired of the woman next to me what she was reading. She slammed the book closed, tossed it in my lap and then ostentatiously turned her back to block me from their conversation, which mostly consisted of why ‘some people’ couldn’t ‘keep to their own side’. I’m white and I had never (I realized suddenly) run into negative racism aimed at me, not even in the rough sides of LA. Imagine my shock at having the tables turned in my own hometown. Which, I imagine, was the main purpose of their remarks. I recognize their need to, as it were, ‘get even’ and I wasn’t inclined to sit on the ‘wrong’ side of the room again, but I did make overtures that were eventually accepted. Sad that in this day and age, they were still necessary.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 20:12:01 +0000

I agreed with Milton. It is how we respond. Having parents who are Chinese and being married to American really confuse a lot of people. I lived in America for 20 years. 4 siblings are married to American out of 7. People should have open mind.

I had one roommate who is black and other roommate who is Spanish in my first and second year of college. I learned that they experience lots of racism.

Does racism exist where you live?

By: Ralph

Ralph — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 11:42:06 +0000

A very good read, this helps a lot of people be more open minded when it comes to the topic of racism. Indeed traveling opens up many doors with regards to this, the more people who gets to read about this the better way of avoiding racism altogether.

By: LatinoinLA

LatinoinLA — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 22:37:56 +0000

I’m Hispanic-American and I’ve always had an apprehension for traveling. I decided to put those fears away and just do it. In the past two years, I’ve visited 5 countries from Europe to Latin America. I haven’t experienced any overt racism, just a lot of stares. I identify myself as American it confuses a lot of people, and I have to explain that I was born and raised in the states, but my ancestry is from El Salvador. Interestingly enough the most confusion I’ve caused is in Latin America, where people can’t figure out where I’m from, when I speak my neutral Spanish. And they think I must be really wealthy if I’m not white and I’m traveling in their countries. I agree with BLackChickOnTour, there are some countries I just won’t visit, like Russia, even my Russian friends tell me to avoid it. I just spent the holidays in Germany and I loved it, people were really friendly.

By: BlackChickOnTour

BlackChickOnTour — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:46:02 +0000

Thanks for writing this article. My husband is Swedish, I’m a Black-American, and currently we reside in Saudi Arabia. We travel quite a bit, and I can tell you, we’ve never really experienced as much racism as I experience in my own country, the good ol United States of America. However, I try to avoid BS as well. My thoughts are…if it’s too much to contend with…or I’m at risk…then why go. For example, as of right now…I will NEVER step foot in Russia. They are killing and/or severely harrassing Africans on what appears to be a daily basis (from what I read in the news). I was semi-planning a trip to South Africa, but when I pulled out my Lonely Planet Guide, and 2 pages were dedicated to racism (basically, it’s still in full effect), I was like…”I don’t know”…then the next pages I read were on the violence…then I was done. Racism and Violence…seem to me they’d just be itching to get some crap started with a mixed race couple. LOL…But seriously. So…no South Africa…at least for awhile. I have white and Indian friends from South Africa, and they tell me that I gotta go to Cape Town and stay the hell out of Johannesburg, but I’m still skeptical. Maybe another time…

By: LoriLynn

LoriLynn — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:02:05 +0000

My experience is that racism is everywhere and seems to be a natural human tendancy that is built in to our DNA no matter what level of education we have, or country we come from. It’s everywhere. We like to think that in the year 2009 the human race is better than that, but not much has changed. I do agree with you Milton in that it is up to us on how we respond.

LoriLynn

By: Milton Wongso

Milton Wongso — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:01:16 +0000

I laughed when you say they are only interested in the color of your money than skin.

I think it is true especially if you travel to a developing country like India or Indonesia. People just have this perception – if you hold the green bill, you are richer than an average local person, which can very well translate to their well-being if you make purchases.

My advice on the racism is forget and move on. What I found is everywhere you go, there will always be “racism” to some extent. It is up to us how we respond.

Cheers,

Milton

By: Ling

Ling — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:07:21 +0000

I think it’ll change by 2020. Travel is one of the best forms of diplomacy, along with reaching out to the world’s children.