Top 3 Microaggressions I Experience Traveling the World as a Black Woman
And they aren’t so micro.
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Yup, there goes that word again.
Microaggression, a term coined by Harvard psychiatrist and college football trailblazer Chester Pierce in 1970, Mr. Pierce accomplished many things.
He was a decorated and celebrated African-American professor at Harvard in the fields of race relations and psychiatry before his death two years ago.
Mr. Pierce was also the first African American to play college football at an all-white university (Harvard) south of the Mason-Dixon Line in 1947.
He defined microaggressions as follows:
“Subtle, stunning, often automatic and non-verbal exchanges which are put-downs of blacks by offenders”.
Over time, researchers have expanded the definition to include belittling messages to other marginalized groups, including women, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and people of color.
To be honest, I didn’t even know these subtle snubs and reactions had an actual name; I settled for calling people assholes.
So, what do microaggressions have to do with traveling the world?
Well, for me, everything.
As a young, black woman traveling solo around Southeast Asia staying in hostels, boarding planes, long hauling on night buses, and hopping on boats to the next island I am the exception, not the rule.
I am fully aware that the people who have been afforded the most privilege in this world are white, therefore have had the opportunity to travel but this does not give reason to the microaggressions that I have experienced.
Before I traveled to the far east last year for the first time, all the content I consumed talked about the ease in meeting people and making friends.
This is true, though there seems to be a barrier to entry if you are a black woman.
Before I go any further, this is my experience. I cannot and will not speak for all Black people but simply share my point of view and what I’ve experienced.
Hopefully sharing my experiences will encourage other people who are a part of marginalized groups to share their experiences as well.
Here are three microaggressions that I have faced while traveling thus far:
1. Invisibility
“Oh, so you’re just gonna’ ignore me, right”?
“Oh, so you’re just gonna’ pretend we didn’t meet earlier because you’re around other people now”?
“Oh, so you’re just gonna’ exchange travel pleasantries with the (white) people I am clearly sitting with and blatantly avoid my existence”?
Blatantly ignoring my presence is the number one microaggression that I’ve experienced while traveling.
The number of times that I have met people in common areas of hostels during the day to be completely shunned by them at night has been disheartening.
When I first experienced this, I did what most people would do and over analyzed while making some sort of excuse, giving the person/persons the benefit of the doubt.
But when it continued to happen, I knew it was no longer an accident.
At a hostel overlooking the beautiful blue ocean in Quy Nhon, Vietnam, I sat with two friends at the bar simultaneously talking and writing.
Two girls came over and sat at the opposite end and eventually began talking to one of my friends.
Then the other friend was brought into the conversation all exchanging travel pleasantries.
It was obvious I was sitting with the group and engaged in conversation before and while these two girls sat down, so there was no way one could not know I was a part of the group.
Microaggressions can be unintentional but when situations like these occur with such overtness, you’d be a fool not to notice.
Also worth mentioning, I met another young black solo traveler in Chiang Mai, Thailand and she too shared similar experiences and asked for advice.
There is no magical advice except to continue to be yourself and become comfortable with your own company.
2. Where are you REALLY from?
There seems to be this preconceived notion that black people are not or cannot be American.
That we must derive from some other mystical place because America is the land for and by white people.
Spare me.
When I travel, and locals ask this question, I am much more inclined to stop, granted the language barrier allows, and educate them because they don’t have access to all the information that most travelers do.
But when people from Europe, America or Canada ask this question, it’s a huge slap in the face.
The “where are you from” question is indeed a travel pleasantry, but when it is accompanied with the really you are implying something sinister.
Depending on who I’m speaking with, if I have time to give a geography lesson, my answer to this question varies and can go one of two ways:
A. I live in New York.
B. I was born in Jamaica.
If I answer with living in New York, you should take my answer and move on. Unless I or another black person or person of color decides to elaborate, then that part of the conversation is over.
Move on.
3. Eye-Rolling and Language
Once, I walked into a hostel in Pai, Thailand, after a twisty-ass ride up north and asked for a room. The girl who I was asking was a foreigner, and she let me know they didn’t have any places for the night.
Cool, no big deal.
As I grabbed my bag to head out, the girl behind her, also a foreigner, looked me up and down like we were mortal enemies and gave me an eye-roll like no other.
The eye-rolling could be for a multitude of reasons; she was having a bad day, maybe she lost her luggage, who knows, however, it wasn’t the first time it happened.
One of the things I love about travel is the many languages you can hear at any given moment.
It’s beautiful.
But it’s not so beautiful when people use their language as a weapon to make me or anyone else feel “othered”.
Speaking in your native language while you have the skills to speak English shuns me from the conversation and group, implying that you don’t want me apart of the conversation.
Intentional or unintentional, it’s something that happens more often than not.
People argue that microaggressions are just another thing that people want to be upset about. That we can’t take a joke or insist that “it’s not a big deal.”
However, these subtle insults and hostile attitudes can be deflating to the spirit, not to mention, frustrating, and hurtful.
Lastly, white people are not the only group of people who may be on the giving end of microaggressions. They are just the majority in the traveling space.
Again, microaggressions can be very subtle and sometimes unintentional, so the people committing them most likely aren’t aware of their own unconscious biases.
But from some of my experiences above, some of them are not so subtle and not so unintentional.
I was naive to think the psychological warfare that I’m subjected to in the states would be alleviated while traveling and believed that I could drop that load temporarily, but I was wrong.
Instead, I’ve discovered microaggressions are just another unexpected element in travel, just like delayed trains and the loss of belongings that I must learn to navigate.
