Travelling when not white

A friend of mine posted this link on her Facebook: http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Getting+picture+about+prejudice/6638363/story.html

It got me thinking. I’m not the most well-travelled traveller but I’ve been a few places. I’m also rather dense when it comes to subtle racial actions. I assume it comes from growing up in a country where I was the majority so I wasn’t immersed in what it’s like to be a visible minority (ugh) my entire life. Since coming to Canada I have received some education and experience in this.

Yes, Canada, you’re not as racially tolerant as you think you are.

Anyway. Travelling when not white. The article above reminded me of a few minor things in Japan. Nothing bad but a reflection of their response to me. I was teaching a young woman and we were talking about what she was going to do after class. She told me she was going for a ‘reverse perm.’

“Oh,” I said. “What is that?”

“My hair is like yours and I don’t like it.”

Ouch.

There were the times when my hair was touched without permission, when my arm was rubbed, also without permission (“It doesn’t rub off! Stop it!”) and being asked if I was from India and seeing surprise when I said I was from Canada. “Canada? Really?”

“Yes.”

“Canada has people like you?”

“Yes. We’re really shit at mentioning that.”

Sometimes it’s the little, silly things.