A few weeks ago, my honey and I got back from a trip to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. We saw many beautiful things, had interesting conversations with locals and travelers alike, ate good food, and wandered about in cities and in ruins and things. It was pretty great fun.
Mostly, people have wanted to hear about these positive things. As soon as I've delved into some of the not so great/comfortable things, they sort of want to divert the conversation - "But didn't you see Macchu Pichu?" Yeah, we saw Macchu Pichu. It was fucking amazing. But I need to tell you some other things . . . things many people don't want to hear/read . . .
First, though, I also want to acknowledge that no matter how limited our resources are in terms of This American Life, that we are extremely privileged to have had enough resources to have taken this trip, and we recognize that. Often we caught ourselves in the midst of messy, unsustainable, culturally appropriating tourism. If we did, we did our best to get out, or at least analyze the situation and start a conversation about it, if only amongst ourselves. And we tried our darnedest to do better the next time. This isn't about being better or more legit than anyone else. We just really tried our best in imperfect circumstances. And we noticed that lots of other people didn't even seem to notice the circumstances for anyone other than themselves. And yes, it would be a serious omission if I didn't admit that these people were almost always white.
Nothing but love for y'all, especially those who are open to talking about this stuff and trying to be better, but here are the Top Five Fucked Up Things White People Do While Traveling. (To be fair, douchey travelers of all stripes do these things . . . but it really is about 95% white folks.)
1. Speak English
Seriously? Are you seriously speaking English to this indigenous person right now? Are you seriously asking for directions in English? When they don't understand you, are you seriously talking more loudly and more slowly in hopes that they eventually will? The indigenous people here already had to learn one colonizer's language in order to be able to communicate with intruders, and it's called Spanish. Learn some basics and try a little harder or go visit England instead.
2. Take Pictures of Indigenous People
Wow. Have you not even cracked your Lonely Planet? Even the most irresponsible and most basic guidebooks will tell you that it is disrespectful to take photos of indigenous people, *especially* without their permission. Did you not read that part? Did you not care? Do you think that because you are willing to throw a big bill at them afterward, that you are doing them a favor? Can you understand that this is not the It's a Small World ride at Disneyland, but rather, the land and culture of the human beings with whom you are face to face? Will you ever understand that not everything is for sale, or for your consumption?
3. Buy Property/Start a Business in a "Developing" Country
I find language like "third world" and "developing country" problematic, but I don't yet have better shorthand to describe that some countries have less stuff & less money than the US, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, etc. due to capitalism, colonialism, genocide, globalization, and the rest. And thus, for travelers from these "developed" countries, everything seems really cheap. Hooray! Let's buy a bunch of stuff we can't afford at home! Right? Guys? Where are you going . . .?
Your sane friends are walking away, New-Zealand-guy-who-bought-land-and-built-a-hostel-on-it, because this is not right. It's WRONG. How would you feel if you really liked where you lived, and then some rich asshole came and bought up the prime real estate on the river, built a really big house, invited more rich assholes to come stay there, and employed like two people from your town to wait hand and foot on the rich assholes, basically being treated like servants to work for peanuts? I'll go out on a limb and guess you probably wouldn't like it that much. Add in the factors of race, culture, language ("It's really inconvenient for the Americans, Maria, when you don't speak English."), and historical context of people of your race and class being colonizers, mass-murderers, and enslavers, and we've got more than I can cover in this here paragraph, buddy.
4. Complain About the Food
I will admit, I complained about the food in Peru after a while. It was really difficult to get diverse vegetables in my meals, which I am used to because I am spoiled, and it was next to impossible to get a meatless meal. However, if I was faced with a bus station ham and cheese sandwich on white bread, I tried to remember that the health of people all across the world is suffering at the hands of big corporations and the governments who subsidize their unhealthy crap, like white bread and hormone-filled meat. I didn't blame the whole damn culture. I know that Peru grows a bazillion different types of potatoes, and that heirloom corn is plentiful, as is quinoa. I know that people traditionally eat alpaca, probably after a decent lifespan for the alpaca during which I am sure its warm fur is sheared and used for clothing. I know that it is not the fault of the Peruvian people that it's hard to find quinoa and greens at a restaurant, but chicken and white rice is all over the place.
Travelers who complain about food and throw around sentences like, "The food is crap," really piss me off. I heard travelers make disparaging remarks like this without recognizing anything like what I briefly discussed above, not even to mention their lack of remembering that what people grow up with and are used to eating is what they tend to like. And food is different in different regions of the world. What grows is different, how it's prepared is different, and even what is subsidized, cheap, unhealthy, and plentiful can be different. It all informs the cuisine and culture of a place, and to dismiss the food so wholly and rudely is to dismiss the entire culture.
5. Complain About a Place
Take that phrase from #4, above: "The food is crap." Now replace "The food" with the name of a city or country. Seriously. I can't believe that I actually heard travelers say something like, "Ecuador is crap. Barely worth it. Hurry up and get out of there." WHAT. THE. FUCK. How are you going to insult a whole country like that? You're LUCKY, buddy, that the country let you in to experience its riches in the first place. But because you couldn't find enough people who spoke English, or because you couldn't find the kind of fancy food you like, or because I don't even know what your crazypants high-falutin' expectations are, you decide to tell everyone the country is crap? Even if you got robbed, you asshole, what kind of disrespect is that? Which, side note, is probably caused by POVERTY. Idiot. Learn something about the reality of the world and oppression and imbalanced distribution of resources before you even step out of your own house in the morning, fool, and save the world from having to deal with you.
/rant
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