Traveling While Black & Brown
Is TikTok the new Green Book?
Travel is back, with industry experts predicting an increase of roughly 70% from pre-pandemic levels. And with the arrival of summer, travelers are hitting the road and taking flight.
For some, those decisions will be guided by social media resources that cater to travelers of color.
Traci’s Story
The first big trip Traci Howard-Richards took was a European excursion in 2000, following her college graduation. Howard-Richards adored Paris, with its renowned museums and bustling cafes. And she loved Amsterdam, with its canal-lined streets and candy-colored houseboats.
Howard-Richards recalled with fondness spotting her preferred brand of hair grease, “Dark-n-Lovely,” upon arriving at the Paris train station and thinking, “I could live here.”
In Amsterdam, she was struck by the R&B music she heard playing in restaurants. Howard-Richards says she was surrounded by “people who have extremely fair skin and them loving the soul music, them loving Tina Turner. I’m like — again — I can live here.”
But the trip had its downsides. Howard-Richards, a light-skinned Black woman who wore her hair in box braids, said she felt people staring at her in Spain.
Later, a Barcelona shopkeeper called her the N-word. When it happened, Howard-Richards turned to her travel companions, two white friends, and said, “can you believe this shit?” Reflecting on the experience two decades later, Howard-Richards said “[It’s] like I came all the way to Spain to experience racism.”
The bad experience didn’t stop her from traveling, but since that trip Howard-Richards has become increasingly diligent about scouting locations in advance.
These days, she relies heavily on social media sites, especially TikTok and YouTube. And from her home base in California, she scours reviews by Black travelers from all over and connects with members of Facebook travel groups.
When she’s considering a particular location, she adds tags like “solo Black woman” or “Black girl” to produce search results tailored to her interests and her budget.
Before YouTube and TikTok, there was the “Green Book”
While the technology may have advanced, planning travel with comfort and safety in mind is nothing new for Black Americans.
Before TikTok, YouTube and Twitter, there was the Green Book, a resource for Black Americans traveling throughout the U.S.
Beginning in 1936 and through the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Green Book offered practical information during an era when Jim Crow laws and lynching practices created barriers and even mortal danger for Black travelers.
Started by New York postal worker Victor Hugo Green, the Green Book became the “bible” for “Negro travel” as the proliferation of the automobile became synonymous with American identity.
Green predicted, “There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities and privileges in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend this publication for then we can go wherever we please, and without embarrassment.”
New Tech for an Old Problem
As concerns and considerations have shifted and evolved for Black as well as Brown travelers, so too have the resources available to them. Social media platforms have been game changers for travelers of color, along with other marginalized groups. Blogs and vlogs function as digitized Green Books.
Take “Traveling While Black, Seattle.” Part passion project, part growing business, “TWB Seattle” was created by Anthony and Marlie Love. When the millennial couple moved from their home state of Missouri to Seattle in 2019, they were eager to acquaint themselves with the Pacific Northwest.
Anthony Love says the Pacific Northwest doesn’t have “a lot of Black folks.” The Loves wished there was a resource tailored for Black travelers in the region. Then one day Anthony said to Marlie, “hey, why don’t we be that resource? That’s when we thought about the Green Books.”
Marlie’s grandmother had a Green Book. She stumbled upon it during a visit roughly a decade ago, shortly after she and Anthony were married. She didn’t think much about it at the time. Now, Marlie sees what she and Anthony are doing with “Traveling While Black Seattle,” which boasts more than 63,000 TikTok followers and 6,000-plus subscribers to their YouTube channel, as a digital extension of what Green began nearly a hundred years ago.
“Yelp for Inclusivity”
Another resource inspired by the Green Book is the Inclusive Guide, co-founded by two Colorado-based Black women, Crystal Egli, and Parker McMullen Bushman.
Referred to as “Yelp for inclusivity,” the Guide is a user review platform where “individuals can rate businesses and spaces on their customer service experience relative to the users’ specific identities, such as race, ability, gender, and more.” The Guide’s user ratings generate ‘inclusivity scores’ for each business, providing valuable information for travelers.
The “Guide” goes a step further, allowing “businesses seeking to improve their scores” to “request customized resources based on their unique reports in order to target the specific issues their customers have reported.”
McMullen Bushman, 44, also applies her passion for travel and the outdoors through “Kween Werk,” a website and social media handle she’s created.
As a leader in diversity, equity and inclusion, McMullen Bushman hopes “to encourage others to get outdoors and to show representation for people like me in outdoor spaces.”
The Kween’s website content, including a cross country family RV trip last summer titled the “Liberation Tour,” amplifies Black joy. At the same time, McMullen Bushman also details negative experiences when she has them, flagging potential issues for followers.
Sabeen’s Story
Sabeen Shaiq, a 42-year-old Texas-based therapist, loves to travel. An American woman of South Asian descent, Shaiq is a certified travel junkie, having visited 43 countries in all — and mostly as a solo traveler.
Over the years, Shaiq worked to accumulate savings that allowed her to take extended trips. Southeast Asia is a favorite, both because she feels safe traveling there on her own and because “the dollar goes far there.”
When she recounts some of her favorite trips, Shaiq lights up. Until, that is, she recounts how invisible she’s felt at times.
Shaiq says that when she travels outside the U.S. most other travelers are white or Black. Shaiq adds, “as a Brown person, I don’t get American privilege when I travel. No one assumes that I’m American, I often get questioned and doubted like, but where are you really from?”
Shaiq adds, “it’s harder to connect with other travelers because they don’t know how to place you and they don’t know what to do with you. Usually, upon hearing my (American) accent, things will open up a bit.” But if she’s feeling quiet, or shy, Shaiq says she can go days or even weeks without speaking to a single person.
In recent years, Shaiq has found solace in the burgeoning online communities for travelers of color.
While she notes that many of the platforms are geared towards Black travelers, Shaiq often succeeds in connecting with people through such forums. “But then again,” she says, “I’m also often the only non-Black person at a gathering.”
The Pros and Cons of Tech Tools for Travelers
For all that technology offers though, Shaiq can’t help but wonder if something’s not lost in the exchange. Harkening back to some of her earlier trips, when she relied on internet cafes and didn’t yet carry a cell phone, she says “there was a beauty in the getting lost and showing up and knowing nothing when you arrive.”
Today’s resources extend far beyond the original Green Book, which prioritized basic needs and safety for Black Americans engaged in domestic travel.
And even as seasoned travelers like Sabeen Shaiq hold fond memories of “wandering the streets and figuring things out yourself,” when the world felt “smaller,” there are clear advantages to having access to today’s expansive network of digital travel platforms that help connect travelers of color with common interests and create community not only within the United States, but around the world.
Lindsay Bennett is a human rights lawyer and freelance writer. As a lawyer, Lindsay focuses on a range of social justice issues. As a writer, Lindsay focuses mostly on personal essays and opinion pieces, like this piece in Ms. She and her two sons live in Northern California with their beloved Australian shepherd and a bunny named Pedro.
