How Living Around The World For 3 years Has Made Me Hopeless in Eradicating Societal Racism
By Joshua Primus:
Yea, I know, that title sounds terrible right. Well, take a seat and let me blow your mind with some things I’ve seen while being a global citizen.
This won’t be an opinion piece, I call this an experience piece. Let me give you some context. In 2018, at the age of 29 and working in the medical field for about 10 years at the time. I got tired of the daily repetitive conversations in the workplace talking about travelling the world with my co-workers. The driving force behind the urgency to leave was escaping racism and the never ending conversations back and forth with people, is our experience real or not based on their opinion. So I decided it was time to put this dream into action.
I was so dedicated to this decision that I even moved into my car 4 months before heading out just to save extra cash. Mind you, I have never traveled abroad in my life and here I am sleeping in my car selling everything I own. Not for a vacation, but with the purpose of leaving the US on a one-way ticket with no intention of returning in the near future.
My first stop, Montenegro! A beautiful coastal city where I stayed for 2 months before headed to Hungary, Budapest to explore. Brand new to travel I was living in a dream world. I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see around the world.
After a brief stay in Europe I figured it was time to head to Asia. Starting my adventure in Vietnam. Where I ended up living for over a year. I will say this, racism around the world is not as direct as it is in the US. It’s unconsciously embedded in their culture and society but in a different way, let me explain.
I didn’t notice it at first. Everyday I would see women riding motorbikes in 80+ degree weather wearing long sleeve jackets, jeans, gloves, hats or hoodies. I would just think to myself, that’s weird, I know they must be hot as hell. But one day it dawned on me. I went to go buy lotion because of dry skin at the store and found some, but when reading the ingredients I noticed something. It read “bleach” as one of the main ingredients. I thought to myself wtf is this, why would anyone get this.
So I went to another store, then another one, then another store! It took me 5 shops to find lotion without bleach in it. I thought holyshit! everyone is doing this. Then I realized what all the clothing was for. I always wondered why Vietnamese people mainly only went to the beach in the evening. They were trying to stay white! As I traveled through Asia and made friends from several countries like, Thailand, South Korea, China, Japan, Malaysia and Philippines. I realized in all these cultures, people bleaching their skin is a normal thing.
After asking friends from many different Asian countries. I was told, (non-discriminatory because this is just their culture, nothing racist about it.) they are taught that white is beautiful and dark skin is ugly. That white skin means you’re higher class and dark skin means lower class or that you work outside. I didn’t get upset because I know it wasn’t their fault. I just thought to myself, wow. I can’t believe this is a real.
Fast forward traveling Albania and Turkey. I’ll never forget this interaction, one day I was hanging out with a new friend in Cappadocia. We got into the discussion on BLM during all the unrest in the US. So I asked him how he felt about black people. He told me that he thought they were lazy, aggressive trouble makers that always complain. So I followed up by asking if he knew any black people, he said he has never met any.
In any other situation those would be considered fighting words in the US. But this, this was a guy living in the middle of nowhere that has never traveled abroad or met any black people. So instead of getting mad, again I followed up with another question out of pure curiosity. So I asked, why do you think that if you’ve never met any. He said, because, it’s what I see on tv.
There it is! We’ve always known the filming industry, news and tv shows in general purposely misrepresent the character of black and brown people. But here I am, actually witnessing the byproduct of that first hand in a foreign country. To say the least I was unsurprisingly shocked by the statement but did not feel disrespected.
Present day, I’m with my wife living in Tbilisi, Georgia. Only separated from the Ukrainian and Russian war by the black sea. As I watch with sympathy for those in the middle of all of this craziness. Yet, I’m distracted by the videos of African and Indian students being racially profiled at the boarded not being allowed to cross as they try to escape the same war with the only thing not allowing them into safety being the color of their skin. I think, wow, even in the middle of a war they can still find the time to racially profile people.
Yet, here in Georgia I’m numb to the swastika graffiti I often pass on my way to shop for groceries. On a nice evening while down on the beach in Kobuleti. We went to watch the sunset, beer in one hand sitting next to the love my life just enjoying the view. I hear some guys chatting not to far behind us. Just out of curiosity I looked behind us and see a group of guys rocking nazi tattoos talking with the beach lifeguard.
Immediately my mood changes, from beautiful sunset to thoughts of. Hmm, I wonder would he save me if I was drowning. Then very quickly to violent thoughts as I look around the beach and realize I’m the only brown person here and my wife being Japanese is the only Asian on the beach. How can I defend us both if this group of nazis decides to attack us. Will the locals stop it or just watch. I try to keep as smile on my face and snap out of these thoughts while keeping them to myself as not to worry my wife. I realized that I missed the sunset. Luckily my wife got a nice picture of it, but Instead of remembering that beautiful moment. All I can see in this picture is how I was afraid for my wife's and my safety.
I find it important not to forget the words “Societal Racism” in the title. Don’t feel sorry for me about these experiences. You are only hearing about isolated situations. This is not a generalization of the entire world and the many different cultures in it. For the most part, people are overwhelming full of love around the world. Being a global citizen is the best decision I have ever made in my life and I would not have it any other way. What can we do to stop this kind of mentality you may be thinking? Well, that answer is, to be continued…
