RSSThe World is Yours
I know I’m not the only person who’s flipped through a National Geographic, seen pictures of Africans in Africa and thought, “damn, that look like someone I know.” Considering this made me acknowledge a sad fact of my life. Like many Americans, I’m ignorant about the world.
Sadly, we are all victims of America’s self-centered culture, its isolationist history and media dominance, which have contributed to the unconscious assumption that the U.S. is the center of the world.
This mentality has influenced everything from the way we craft our foreign policy to foreign films being produce strictly for American audiences. And don’t forget that around the world its accepted that English is the must-know language.
In my own life, I’ve watched how this phenomenon has infected black Americans. When I thought about its impact on my community, I realized another sad fact. I only know four black people with passports and three of them are immigrants!?!?
Having a passport may not seem like a big deal but it is. The fact we don’t leave the country and see the rest of the world hampers our global consciousness more than anything.
I’m disappointed in myself that a passport has never been a real concern of mine. But the again, how was I supposed to know its importance when most of the people I know have never left the states?
I was fortunate enough to go to college, but I was one of those students who couldn’t afford to go on spring break or semesters abroad. Everything I know about Cancun came from watching spring break on MTV. Still, being in college benefited me because I got to see the kids who’d come back from Cancun with their fresh baked tans. I got look at the photo albums of kids who’d spent a semester in Europe.
Though I’ve never left the country, I’m still very blessed. Many of my homies have never even left our neighborhood. And most didn’t go to college. A combination of economics, fear, comfort and narrow mindedness has made traveling the world the least of their concerns. Instead, they’re more concerned with having enough money for gas and toll.
Not me though. Everyday, I wonder what the rest of the world feels like. I think about how there are people exploring space travel but people in my community can’t even imagine Canada.
To me, seeing the world is crucial. Its impact will help reverse our social condition.
It’s about seeing our struggle in its full context. Its about us understanding that although our struggle here is real, there are people around the world, who look like us that are fighting wars, battling disease and don’t have clean drinking water
It’s about building community. This larger consciousness binds me and the Africans cab drivers that won’t pick me up. Its binds me to the Dominican’s that look like me, but can’t speak any English. It works to negate terms like “African Booty Scratcher.”
It fuels a sense of pride and creates an understanding that our history didn’t start on ships. Once we break these chains, we’ll start to realize that the curse of being black in America is also a gift.
9 Comments, Comment or Ping
"a mom"
Beautiful post. I’m already have gotten my daugther and I applications. As well as myself I think she really needs to see other places where people look just like me or not like me. I think our world without this is much to small.
[Reply]
Diana
Traveling the world is purely educational. As a kid growing up my family and I would take a vacation every summer to a different country. Although I was young I remember some things I saw or places I visited that really left an impact on me. You really get to see how other people in other countries live. It’s amazing how there is a whole other world out there and the attitudes and cultures are significantly different. As a country we claim to believe that we are the best and other countries are generally not as advanced as we are. Those same countries actually think that we are the ignorant ones. It always seemed to me that there was this feeling of belonging and safety that often we don’t have. It’s really the simple things that people enjoy and all the extravganza we have here is at a smaller level. Yes, I have to agree that we have comfort and surplus in our country but we kill ourselves trying to get those things. The quality of life is better and people are more stress free, more relaxed. I’m not putting down my country at all, just saying that there is always room for being and getting better. It’s unfortunate that we all don’t get the opportunity to travel the world and like you mentioned some are too afraid to leave what they know. Your curiousity alone is fascinating and when Troubl goes worldwide you will then share your experieces with the rest of us..
[Reply]
Boosy
TROUBLman great post…That is some real stuff Diana, It is said to say that the average American is ignorant and we are looked at as ignorant outside of America.
[Reply]
Malia
Like you Troublman, MTV was my Spring Break hiatus as well. And only in the last year have I really even looked into what I need in order to get a passport.
You’re absolutely right, this is one of the reasons America is sometimes described as being an insular country because of the low ownership or passports, and thus the low rate of international travel.
The mere act of traveling to another country does not necessarily make one any less ignorant, provincial, etc. While the British do travel abroad quite often, many of them just want to go clubbing, stock up on cheap booze or stay in beach resorts populated entirely by other British tourists. By contrast, an American who has planned and saved his whole life for a trip to Africa is probably intending to SEE Africa, not to kill as many brain cells as possible in Nigeria.
It is time for us to get informed though, here is a link for first timers who want to apply for their passport:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/first/first_832.html
I can’t wait to get mine stamped!!!!!!
[Reply]
ChiCity Star
The average American urban dweller is subjected to 5000 advertisments per day.
The average American household has the television on more than seven and a half hours a day.
The average American urban dweller spends more of his life than ever before stuck in traffic, or working to pay for his car. It is estimated that the average car owner spends 1/6 of his waking hours either in transit or earning wages to support his vehicles(s).
I guess they are all to busy in traffic, working to pay for their car, dealing with adverts and watching tv. It doesn’t leave much time for passport applications.
[Reply]
James
I don’t have any statistics, but I suspect if you compare the number of Americans who travel outside the US, with the number of Europeans who travel outside Europe, you would get a very different picture. My experience anecdotally, is that I have travelled to Paris and London, and I saw plenty of Americans. Not alot of blacks albeit, so perhaps it’s more of an urban thing as you say ChiChity.
[Reply]
KEVIN
Recent changes in passport laws made a mess of the system while creating an incredible backlog. The U.S. Passport Office responded by giving travelers flying in from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and Caribbean a pass of sorts: as long as they had the paperwork showing their application was underway, they would be waved through. No more.
Starting October 1st of last year, if you fly into the U.S. from the places listed above, YOU MUST HAVE A PASSPORT.
If you haven’t started the process, do so now, and read this carefully:
Expect to wait at least three months for your passport. If you pay the governments $60 expediting fee, plan to wait at least six weeks (yeah, the website may say just a couple of weeks, but do not believe that!).
You can speed things up if you apply in person at one of the Regional Passport Agencies. But please note: you MUST have an appointment, so call ahead, but even then, BE PREPARED TO WAIT IN LINE.
Bottom line: if you’re flying to Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean this year, make sure you have a passport!
[Reply]
"a mom"
This beautiful little in the picture reminds me of one of the girls twins in my family. If I say her in another country I would have stop and take a second look. We all run into people who look like us. I once ran into two gentlemen who said my name and I never saw them before. Apparently this person looked like me as wll as having the same first name and had given and adult pajama party over the weekend. (Scandalous) Anyway! The world is so big, got to see it as a gift to myself.
[Reply]
Keene
I can say I have left the states, but it really doesn’t count for anything just passing through Canada, coming from Michigan, just to get to New York State. I too wonder about other lands and countries. I have so many I wonder about but don’t know where I would like to start. One thing I have learned about traveleing the states and also meeting new people from other countries… Is that our human behavior does not differ much. As far as culture and my willingness to learn, my curiousity is probably as high as a 10 month old baby!!! Maybe it’s beacause of my lack of funds just to up and leave that discurage me from wanting to leave. But I promise you this, I’m getting the hell up out of the states to see another country (NOT BORDERING THE STATES DAMMIT!!!)
[Reply]
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