First things first, unless you are in London, Paris, or Amsterdam you will automatically not fit in.
The first thing I googled when going to Korea and Italy is what is it like being black in these countries. I can't just simply look up what its like being an American because a white persons experience in a certain country is most definitely not going to be the same as a black woman's experience. And this is something that almost every black traveler can relate to. We are used to being discriminated against in our own country and we hear stories on the news or the internet of the racism in others.
Being black abroad you will get stares. It's a fact. It is guaranteed to happen. I still occasionally get upset when someone is staring me down or looking at me funny. This insecure feeling washes over me, I begin to think "Do I have a booger in my nose?" "Is there a stain on my shirt?" "Has my hair gone awry?" The answer is no, you're just black. Some may look at you with curious eyes, other may look at you with a more cautious lens.
Being black abroad your skin color carries weight. Stereotypes are real therefore assumptions will be made about you just because of your skin color. In Italy many people automatically assumed that I was African. They don't associate black skin with America. And because of the current refugee issue in Italy some Italians don't really like people with black skin so automatically you carry this weight you didn't even ask for. In Korea they love black culture, the music, the sports, and the fashion. But, because of some American media being broadcasted there we are lumped in to being criminals.
Being black abroad can be lonely. Besides the people I went to school with you didn't really see a lot of black people. This goes for Korea and Italy. Every time I saw a black person and I knew they were American it was like spotting a unicorn. At a bar one night I was with my friends and this random black girl comes in to the bar looks at me and my friends and said "Black People!!" with a wide-eyed excitement. Even though we didn't know each other it was this automatic camaraderie because we were going through this together.
Being black abroad you are not the beauty standard. You will not find foundation shades your skin color. You will not see many advertisements of people that look like you. They will not have Shea Moisture, a wide tooth comb, or a boar bristled brush. You may be considered ugly in that country. In Korea they are so concerned with looking european they go through extreme lengths to do so. Your looks are not what is considered beautiful. But, you will be fetishized if you try to date in a country where there aren't a lot of black people you absolutely will run in to people who want to fetishize you and get with you just so they can say they have been with a black person.
Being black abroad cultural appropriation and political correctness isn't a thing. I can not tell you how many Italians I've seen with dread locs, or box braids. Even the K Pop idols are wearing box braids, getting dread locs, and have you seen that video on the internet of that asian man getting manipulating his hair texture to be more like a black persons! You will see them wearing a dashiki and if you hang out with the Koreans or Italians who listen to rap music they may think its okay to say nigga around you.
Despite these things, this is not true for every country that doesn't have a large population of black people. For example my mom has been to Vietnam and Cambodia she said that the people there were mostly curious about black people. Wanting to feel her skin and touch her hair. Not, in a petting zoo type of way but more like they literally have not seen a black person in their life. She said that she never really felt like she was being judged by the color of her skin, rather that she was embraced, loved and looked at as beautiful.
But, then you also hear those horror stories in China of black people going somewhere and people taking their picture without their permission and treating them like a zoo animal. I've actually had this happen to me in Korea at a zoo where people were taking pictures of me and my grandparents. My Pop Pop joked that they were probably wondering who let these animals out.
Now, I don't say all this to deter people from traveling. Knowing these things most definitely does not deter me from traveling. The only way for this to change is that we need more black travelers. These countries need to have more experiences with different types of black people. We need to get our passports and infiltrate these homogenized places with our magical presence. With the Internet we are a globalized community but we shouldn't just be traveling to these places digitally, we also need to do it physically. And show them what successful, beautiful, black people really look like.
For my second project of the semester I tried to push myself a little bit more creatively.
The main theme I was working with is displacement or people who seem to not have a place. From that I thought of social outcasts. People who are too weird or too lame that don't really fit in to society. I wanted to create something weird but wearable, combining these two competing fabrics that wouldn't ordinarily be together in to a garment that works.
