Yes, we do need to travel, both to counter some of the negative images created by American mass media and to get a taste of the rich diversity of black cultures in the world — and yes, there is more than one.

Thanks for a terrific comment. Keep ‘em coming!

I agree with what you’ve written because I do believe that about 75% of the time I found myself having that experience — yet it was not quite the same when I lived abroad for an extended period of time.

The only place I ever felt I was percieved automatically as an “American” was in Japan, which was incredibly awesome. I lived there for 2.5 years and felt entirely American in Tokyo.

However, I lived in Chile as a high schooler and college student, and I was never “the American”, because the kids my age equated the ubiquitous “white-blonde” with anything American. I was Brazilian, or Colombia, or something else entirely.

From experience, I believe that black folks’ “insta-American” status can start to disappear in the Americas, where they are used to seeing afro-descended-peoples that may have immigrated into their country from a neighboring nation, or that may be part of the underrepresented population within said country; It was amazing to see black people treat me like a native-born in Cartagena, Colombia.

I believe it also has to do with your language level – if you speak the language fluently, you become less “American”, and more that “dark person that came illegaly to take jobs”. <— especially in places like France.

When I lived in Germany, it was interesting to note that during the first month, I was treated as an American rock star, but by months two and three, when those in my neighborhood realized they kept seeing my face, they started to get a little, shall I say…distrustful of my origins.

I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that more blacks (from the US at least), should travel more; not only are we a missing presence abroad, we need to have other images out there countering what other nations see on TV.

I'd say that traveling abroad as a black American affords many opportunities to learn about other black cultures throughout the world (there was an Afro-French hair salon down the street in Germany and they kinda took me in and showed me the ropes), but it also does give you the opportunity to feel distinctly America at times.

And, as you said, that can be quite a load off

And that, in a nutshell, is why I created this blog, Tamika.

I would take mild issue with your interpretation of of the consumers view of airline service as “entitlement.” Regardless of where they sit on the airplane or what fare-basis letter is printed on their electronic ticket, virtually every passenger on every every airplane has one thing in common: They paid for that seat. Whether they paid enough for the airline to make a go of that city may be open to question, but they paid, nonetheless.

Airlines, on the other hand, are entitled to seek a profit, a point that I made in the original post. No disagreement there whatsoever. We don’t have any state-owned or government-run public airlines in this country, nor probably would we want one.

I just wonder how much real effort they put into rescuing a failing market before deciding to pull the plug on it. On that score, you have more faith in United and its competitors than I do.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share some truly worthwhile insight. I expect to hear from you again on these pages…as soon as you complete your pilot training and are conducting your reign as an Aviation Queen should — in the air!