The Real Reason That Black People “Don’t Travel”
Before #TravelNoire, the Black Travel Movement may have seemed like an upper-class privilege. But in reality, Black people have been traveling this whole time – we’ve just had to maneuver restrictions and prejudice in the process. And that hasn’t always been well-documented.
During Jim Crow, it was dangerous to travel while Black. Laws mandated that public places in the South were strictly separate for whites and Blacks, and racists used lynchings to enforce the law as it was both written and understood. Not only did these laws restrict where Black folks could eat, drink or use the restroom while on the road, it also impacted their actual modes of transportation. Buses and trains were segregated, including meal cars if/when available; and pervasive racial discrimination and poverty limited Black car ownership. Nevertheless, automobiles provided an escape from the discomfort and segregation of public accommodations. And thus, our road trips became the solution to the Jim Crow south and a prejudiced America.
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While vacations may have been infrequent, and both work and family-related travel encumbered, we – as always – made our own solutions to life’s challenges. From 1936 to 1966, Victor Hugo-Green, a New York City mailman, published The Negro Motorist Green Book (aka the Negro Travelers’ Green Book or Green Book). The Green Book provided a guide to services and places relatively friendly to African-Americans and eventually expanded to a full-fledged travel agency with each across North America and beyond. So what types of issues did the Green book solve?
White-owned businesses refusing to serve food to Black patrons
White-owned businesses refusing to repair Black-owned and/or occupied vehicles
Black travelers unable to secure overnight accommodation or denied food by white hotel-owners
Black travelers facing violence and forcible expulsion from whites-only “sundown towns”
….and the list continues.
The Green Book was organized by city and state and also shared information on upcoming conventions, beauty parlors, gas stations, night clubs, and city profiles to entice tourism to particular areas.
If Black Americans opted for trains, though, there was another invention that helped us maneuver racist terrains. Before travel was dominated by airplanes and automobiles, segregated trains made travel uncomfortable for Black passengers: not only did the “colored only” section lack amenities, Black passengers were also prohibited from eating in the dining car, or using many (if any) restaurants and facilities along the route.
Since we couldn’t eat on or off the train, the “shoebox lunch,” was packaged by Black women relatives or community members and full of “foods which traveled well: boiled eggs, a piece of pound cake, pineapple upside down cake or sweet potato pie, a serving of fruit or vegetable, sandwiches, and almost always, fried chicken.” Now that’s some soul food.
As you cross city, state and country lines during these next few months, keep in mind the troubles our ancestors went through to the luxuries that we may take for granted today.
#PushBlack
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If you ever attended a sporting event in America, you have witnessed a sea of patriotic folks placing their right hand over their hearts as someone proudly sings the Star Spangled Banner to honor their country. Unfortunately, for Black Americans, participating in this ritual can produce conflicting emotions given the racist history of the national anthem.
On one hand, many of us want to feel connected to the place we live everyday. In practice, that can mean saluting the flag, saying the pledge of allegiance, respecting the president, and singing the national anthem. On the other hand, this nation once prided itself on our ancestors’ slave labor and continues to show a lack of concern for Black lives.
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In 1814, Francis Scott Key penned the Star Spangled Banner as a poem 117 years before it became the national anthem. According to The Root, “it is one of the most racist, pro-slavery, anti-Black songs in the American lexicon” because Key supported slavery, believed Blacks were mentally inferior, and captured his sentiments in the “lost stanza” of his poem.
Below are lines that openly celebrate the murder of enslaved Blacks from Key’s poem that were conveniently left out of the national anthem:
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Key’s underhanded remarks show his disdain for Blacks fighting for their own freedom and poignantly expresses that enslaved Blacks were destined for the grave. Key and other white men believed that Black soldiers were a threat to their perceived white superiority.
Colin Kaepernick and other Black athletes have taken a stand against modern-day injustices by kneeling during the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality and inequality in America. This has also brought renewed attention to the song’s lyrics and Key’s racist background.
As a reminder, James Weldon Johnson wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing” in 1900 as a way for African-Americans to display patriotism while remaining focused on Black liberation. Perhaps, it is time to return to singing an anthem that was made “for us and by us.”
Credit rules everything around us. Obtaining a car, house, apartment, or a loan all starts with having good credit. And in some cases, getting a job depends on your credit as well.
That sounds nonsensical, right? Because it is.
Credit checks are sometimes used as a criterion for securing a job. For many Black folks, this presents a problem because we often don’t have the best credit. Some experts even point to credit checks as a reason for chronic unemployment among Black people.
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New America Foundation’s Hannah Emple says the rise in credit checks for jobs presents a race-neutral façade, calling it “operationalizing racial discrimination.” In other words, using systems and policies that perpetuate racism.
In 2012, Demos National Survey on Credit Card Debt examined low and middle-income households. The survey showed that credit checks keep one out of ten workers unemployed.
That rate is much higher for Black workers.
In fact only a quarter of Black households have scores over 700 and only 44 percent would say they have good credit.
While the Fair Credit Reporting Act does permit employer credit check, Demos says it’s not designed to be a screening tool.
The Great Recession of 2008 hit Black people hardest, and we are still recovering from it. How can we repay our debts if we can’t get a job?
Aunty Maxine came to try to save the day.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) introduced the Fair Credit Reporting Improvement Act of 2014. The bill’s goal was to reduce derogatory marks from seven to four years and remove settled debts, giving people a better chance to improve their credit.
However, bills like this are hard to move through Congress. Equifax and Experian spent a combined $4.5 million in campaign donations and lobbying against the bill.
If you’re looking to raise your credit score, check out this book by Constance Carter, Keeping Score: What You Need To Know To Make Your Credit Score Grow.
Could blaxploitation films be the original FUBU?
Maybe yes -- but maybe no. These films were made specifically for an urban Black audience and featured a majority - if not all - Black characters. They were often produced and directed by Black filmmakers, and - like them or not - they’ve had a prolonged influence on Black cinema ever since inception.
From 1970 to 1980, blaxploitation films ranged in themes including martial arts/action, coming-of-age, comedy, musical, and more. They showcased a range of Black talent - but the characters were often latent with stereotypes and (arguably) caricatures on both sides.
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The NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Council and the National Urban League joined forces to fight against their production. The Coalition Against Blaxploitation staunchly advocated against their production and critiqued their choice of characters, settings and storylines. Ultimately, this powerful advocacy block would contribute to the genre’s demise.
But was there an ounce of positivity that perhaps this group missed?
The Spook Who Sat by the Door is a 1973 action-crime drama birthed out of a 1969 novel by Sam Greenlee. Through satire, the film and novel paint a tale of government insurrection - led by Black men - who used this country’s most hidden secrets against them for their people’s salvation.
The film positions itself in the realities of the time: the influx of Black hires in the federal government to thwart off discrimination claims. But these hires were often for show -- and quickly lost or loosely held.
In Greenlee’s portrayal, the main character is one of the first African-American officers in the Central Intelligence Agency.
Greenlee couldn’t find a US publisher to issue the novel, so he opted to have it published in the United Kingdom. Even after securing a production deal, the film was stripped from theaters after just three weeks.
But what was all of the fuss about? Check out the film here to see why this country may not want to see a Black man rescue himself.
When he heard that Democrats were threatening to increase taxes, Goodloe Sutton, the editor of a small-town Alabama paper, The Democrat-Reporter, published an op-ed calling for the Ku Klux Klan to clean out Washington, D.C.
He also said the KKK was neither racist nor violent, actually comparing it to the NAACP… What?!
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“Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again,” he wrote. “Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama."
"If we could get the Klan to go up there and clean out D.C., we’d all been better off.”
Well, the good thing is, Goodloe Sutton stepped down after being called out - and guess what? The New York Times reported that he was replaced with a sister - Elecia R. Dexter!
With racists becoming more emboldened by this current administration, calling them out might just lead to one fewer in a public role of influence. Hey, it might even open the door for another Black person like Elecia!
Bobby Brown has claimed that he taught Michael Jackson how to moonwalk. It’s a bit of a hot take as it is widely believed that dancer Jeffrey Daniel taught Jackson. In an interview with the podcast The Cipher, he explains how he came to teach Jackson the dance.
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“We was poppin’. He was watchin’ us pop,” Brown said. “He saw me do the moonwalk. And he [asked], ‘What is that?’ And I did it again. He just watched it, and he just started doin’ it.”
Whether or not you believe that Brown taught Jackson the famous dance, the question still stands: who invented the moonwalk?
The answer?
No one really knows.
There have been speculations and strong opinions about who invented the move. Some have pointed to dancer Bill Bailey or comedian Dick Van Dyke as inventors of the move.
Rolling Stone says that James Brown performed the move for years before Jackson came along. However, HowStuffWorks writer Shanna Freeman says that move came to be with 70 years of evolution in dance.
Dancer Bill Bailey did a version of the move at the Apollo Theatre in 1955.
Jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway performed the move before that in 1933.
Other dancers and performers perform some semblance of the move during their time.
So the answer to the question of who invented the moonwalk is: no one. As dance evolved, so did the moves that would become the moonwalk. But there is no doubt to who popularized the move and changed the game of performance as we know it: Michael Joseph Jackson, the King of Pop.
At George Washington High School - named after a president who owned many, many enslaved Black people - attending the African-American Heritage Month assembly in March is apparently optional for its students.
By having a parent fill out an emailed form, students could be given permission to SKIP the Black History program packed full of education.
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If students didn’t want to learn about Black people’s experiences and tremendous contributions to American culture, they could simply go to the library instead of the assembly.
Disappointment and outrage poured in from parents and community members. The majority viewed the letter - and the school - as insensitive because, no matter who it’s about, history is educational. An opt-out option goes against the very purpose of educating your students!
The backlash came so quickly, Principal Kristin Waters promptly removed the option to skip the assembly.
In a follow-up letter, Waters wrote, “As we continue the important work of dismantling systemic racism, segregation and inequity in education, and specifically at [this school], we appreciate our community holding us accountable.”
Black history is part of HISTORY. And knowing the history of Black people informs the injustices happening to our community daily.
But with the world normalizing whiteness, it’s no surprise this learning institution offered a “no thanks” option for learning about Blackness.