Traveling While Black

I created Black and Traveled as a way to encourage our community to expand our travel horizons and experience the world in a different way. Racial tensions in the US are at an all time high, but the truth of the matter is that we aren’t treated the same outside of the US.

Don’t get me wrong, racism exists internationally, but it doesn’t outweigh the experience you feel when you realize that it’s not as bad as it is here in the US. Think about it how many instances have we heard in the last year of people taking advantage of the pandemic and picking up and moving to another country. I just read an article the other day about Portugal having a high number of black expats that have relocated in the past year. While vacationing in Playa Del Carmen I had the pleasure of meeting so many black expats who now live in Mexico and are thriving.

According to a recent study by a marketing agency, MMGY Global black travelers have become an economic force, spending $109 billion on vacations in 2019. So the question is how do you prepare to “travel while black”.

Many black travelers have shared common things they experienced while traveling, and they include:
• Stares (or being asked are you Beyonce)
• Being asked weird questions about their origin
• Unfair judgment from tourist and immigration officials
• Having to research the racial climate of a place before traveling

Despite this, traveling while black can be enjoyable when beautiful memories outweigh the negative ones. Here are a couple of things that you can do to improve your experience when “traveling while black”

• Follow Travel Blogs or Media that Supports Black Traveling: These travel blogs give you a sense of identification, sense of self, and sense of belonging. Examples of travel blogs that you can check out include Black and abroad, black voyageurs, jet black travel, haywire weekend, melanin journey, the black travel club, travel noire, etc.
• Do Enough Research about your Destination: In the 1960s where racial discrimination was still at its peak, victor green published a book popularly known as the green book. This book serves as a traveling guide to blacks in safe countries they can travel to with little or no racial discrimination. But in this era, you can do research online and gather enough information about countries that one can visit.
• Research the destination customs and norms: Like I mentioned earlier things that we’ve been conditioned to find offensive in the US may not be offensive in another culture so it’s important to know what to expect and how to act before embarking on a new location.

These steps will help improve the quality of your traveling experience irrespective of the factors associated with black traveling; you can still enjoy a thrilling adventurous dream.

I created Black and Traveled as a way to encourage our community to expand our travel horizons and experience the world in a different way. Racial tensions in the US are at an all time high, but the truth of the matter is that we aren’t treated the same outside of the US.

Don’t get me wrong, racism exists internationally, but it doesn’t outweigh the experience you feel when you realize that it’s not as bad as it is here in the US. Think about it how many instances have we heard in the last year of people taking advantage of the pandemic and picking up and moving to another country. I just read an article the other day about Portugal having a high number of black expats that have relocated in the past year. While vacationing in Playa Del Carmen I had the pleasure of meeting so many black expats who now live in Mexico and are thriving.

According to a recent study by a marketing agency, MMGY Global black travelers have become an economic force, spending $109 billion on vacations in 2019. So the question is how do you prepare to “travel while black”.

Many black travelers have shared common things they experienced while traveling, and they include:
• Stares (or being asked are you Beyonce)
• Being asked weird questions about their origin
• Unfair judgment from tourist and immigration officials
• Having to research the racial climate of a place before traveling

Despite this, traveling while black can be enjoyable when beautiful memories outweigh the negative ones. Here are a couple of things that you can do to improve your experience when “traveling while black”

• Follow Travel Blogs or Media that Supports Black Traveling: These travel blogs give you a sense of identification, sense of self, and sense of belonging. Examples of travel blogs that you can check out include Black and abroad, black voyageurs, jet black travel, haywire weekend, melanin journey, the black travel club, travel noire, etc.
• Do Enough Research about your Destination: In the 1960s where racial discrimination was still at its peak, victor green published a book popularly known as the green book. This book serves as a traveling guide to blacks in safe countries they can travel to with little or no racial discrimination. But in this era, you can do research online and gather enough information about countries that one can visit.
• Research the destination customs and norms: Like I mentioned earlier things that we’ve been conditioned to find offensive in the US may not be offensive in another culture so it’s important to know what to expect and how to act before embarking on a new location.

These steps will help improve the quality of your traveling experience irrespective of the factors associated with black traveling; you can still enjoy a thrilling adventurous dream.