We've all heard it before. To have sympathy for people who are treating you like a zoo attraction, touching you, photographing you, harassing you etc because they've never seen Black people before.
I somewhat understood that UNTIL I travelled to places where there were almost zero Black people and still got treated like a human being and was not bothered at all.
Prague, rural Thailand, remote places in Malaysia, Singapore, remote places in Indonesia and Vietnam. In all of these places I either saw zero Black people or just a handful.
They truly did not gaf that I was Black and left me unbothered. It was such a peaceful and freeing experience to just walk around as the only Black person in town and still be treated like anyone else.
That's when I realised it was a cultural difference. Certain places, people mind their business and have empathy, other places don't.
It's weird that we have to have empathy for them but they can't have empathy for us. They understand boundaries bc they would never treat their fellow locals that way bc they're human beings but suddenly, we're not also fellow human beings who have feelings.
After experiencing that magical type of invisibility and normalcy while travelling, I'm determined to only visit places where I'll get this kind of treatment. No one is paying money and working hard to be a zoo attraction and it's good to know there are many places in the world where you can be at peace.