Travel writing and travel blogging are two very different beasts, but they are both dominated by White people. The perception that primarily White people travel or write or blog about their travels is reinforced by the gatekeepers Bani mentioned. Completely agree that it is very insular. Blogging is liberating in the sense anyone can start a blog and click publish, but gatekeepers still exist in allowing travel bloggers to be taken seriously. Organizations like TBEX, or Hostelling International, or the countless lists that masquerade as being objective often only have White travel bloggers. It is seen as an anomaly when a POC is invited to speak or is on one of these lists, and it generally has to do with diversity, not craft.
The landscape is changing with more female voices out there, but the ones popularized and who end up on lists or speaking engagements are all primarily White. And its incredibly rare for me to find a White travel blogger who says anything about the lack of diversity. Many POC dont want to touch race either, or will frame race in a way not to alienate White people by using coded language. And because nobody wants to have a proper conversation about it, its become apartheid style, where the default travel lists are filled with White People, and the rest of us end up on lists with the unifying feature of our skin, no matter whether we write listicles, narrative, solo female, or family blogs.
I don't think it's the assumption that it's an affluent thing. It's the assumption that it's a White thing. If the audience a brand is trying to connect with are college students on a super cheap budget backpacking adventure through Europe or SE Asia, the instinct is to call a White backpacker. If it's solo female travel, White person. If it's luxury travel or family travel, we're not even on the radar unless someone wants to specifically find POC. I don't see anyone really waking up to it because the only people who make any noise are some POC, and the majority of POC don't want to rock the boat. The definition of diversity for some publications means having a POC writing articles that are either devoid of race (10 awesome things to eat in Phuket) or with just enough colour to not alienate the White reader (Funny Things You Hear When You're a Black Traveller).
In my experience, publishers and brands are receptive to working with POC (they're really just interested in the numbers), but they don't know we exist because of this bubble Bani mentioned earlier. The organizations that are supposed to represent the diverse travel blogging community are all White and this inevitably trickles down to connecting brands and companies. The POC who work with brands have done so by being very careful about mentioning race (if it's mentioned at all).
It's not level by a long shot. Nobody gets connected to brands or breaks into "mainstream awareness" by writing blog posts and hoping for the best. They get on lists, which get them on more lists, which expand their audience and social reach, which then gets them invited to TBEX, and then they're in the travel blogging elite circle, which is unsurprisingly populated completely by White people. Most bloggers of colour I know and read don't initially have an interest in writing about race or connecting with "audiences from the under-represented/excluded demographics." I certainly had zero interest in that. I wanted to write about strategies for teaching ESL in China, and food and travel and cooking honeymoons and adventures. POC have to deal with systematic racism in the travel industry and it's an active choice whether some travel bloggers choose to ignore mentioning it or do so very lightly without using words like racism or white supremacy.
I don't think the ignorance is simple or unintentional. Having panel after panel or lists filled sometimes only with with White people is not an accident. It's also not intentional in the sense that someone is actively trying to silence our voices. It's that we're not thought of unless there's a special occasion that always revolves around diversity. Nobody would ever call the default lists Best White Travel Bloggers to Follow in 2015 or TBEX a White Travel Blogging Conference even though that's exactly what it feels like. It's a murky world of racism by accepting and benefitting from the status quo.
Aside from it being bullshit to marginalize an entire community because they're not White, it also creates an incredibly boring literary landscape. It's not that the writing is bad, I very much enjoy reading plenty of what's out there, but I have to actively diversify my reading in order for it to be interesting. It's like only eating one type of food everyday. Otherwise I'm reading blog after blog, book after book of the same White narrative: "I saved $40,000 by cutting out Starbucks and quit my dreadful corporate job to travel the world on a budget. Read my story to inspire you to do the same." It perpetuates a skewed reality of racial homogeneity. Look up travel books for entire continents where White people are the minority like Africa or Asia and you will rarely find POC on lists for blog posts or books. Even to tell our own stories! But the real consequence of having only White people tell the story is perfectly summed up by Chimamanda Adichie's Ted Talk, "The Danger of a Single Story."
Thank you for reading the blog =) Sonja, you're absolutely right that there is much to be hopeful for. In addition to the individual POCs you mentioned, TBEX has also had Black industry representation with a handful of Black bloggers, which is a good start, but it's still a very, very White conference and I don't see that changing all that much unless there's a real ideological shift from organizers and within the community.
You are absolutely on the mark with the term, "cultural exchange," which seems like the complete opposite of what most travel writing and travel blogs about South Africa are interested in. A lot of ones I've read deal primarily with white people who are afraid of interacting with anyone, so Shark Cage Diving comes in at number one, followed by drinking wine because that's what the locals do everyday.
What style of writing do you mean? Conventional faces is code for white faces, so not clear on how this is in addition to anything. Even in the hypothetical situation where there is a disentangling of brands and money from travel writing, I don't think this would shift priorities for travel blogging organizers or publishing because the core values are still there.
Amy, I get what you're saying. There are many, many voices in literary travel essays from novelists like Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, Michael Ondaatje, who never even get mentioned. I like Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux as much as the next guy, but I understand perfectly why we don't see their stories. Short story anthologies suffer from the same thing. I don't see how chasing literary bylines is any different from travel blogging, where you're writing a heap of posts for free (in addition to the number of hours spent doing your own marketing).
Spot on, Adedana, especially with the ridiculous coffee map. Ethiopian coffee is fantastic, so is Rwandan. There's also this gem I remember Teju Cole calling out Matador for on twitter. The ENTIRE CONTINENT OF AFRICA is missing from the equation, but they thought, well, good enough, nothing out of the ordinary here:
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/mapped-tipping-around-world/
I'll start by saying this: that hashtag needs to happen. I haven't been able to properly articulate why I get irritated when people cite POC in publications and that this is somehow diversity. It's this : "there's a tendency to follow that white rubric and mimic the dominant voice of the narrative." That is it. And it isn't like this is some new field for POC. More established POC leading travel writing workshops is a great idea and an expansion of reading lists of travel literature so 100 best travel books don't feature 99 white writers and Pico Iyer and call it diverse.
Matt, it's become so normalized for POC to see these things everywhere that we often don't know what to say to these blatantly racist things that we read. As a POC, this is our reality. That's why that map as incredibly racist as it is is still up on the site along with the tiny, tiny sampling of bullshit being peddled Adedana mentioned above. These aren't isolated incidents, they're all part of a systematic ideology that our stories aren't as important, which is why Writers of Colour try to fit our stories and articles into white narratives (Bani talked about this somewhere here). If a POC was writing the best coffeeshops, I wouldn't be surprised if they completely skipped over Ethiopia or Africa altogether.
Last summer I went to a fiction workshop at VONA and one of my classmates, a black writer said something I initially thought was funny: "I would be happy just to be a mediocre writer. I'm not trying to be the next Chimamanda or the voice of my generation. Just a writer." White writers have the luxury to suck or be mediocre and still keep getting on booklists or travel blog lists and speak at conferences. POC, on the other hand, have to be great or speak to something larger than just ourselves in order to maybe get heard. But I am also an avid reader and can't stand lazy or dispassionate storytelling, whether it's by white writers or POC. But I'm more likely to keep my mouth shut if there's a book or travel blog by a POC I don't particularly like because of stilted prose or boring characters, or it's just not my cup of tea (breaking: POC are not a united front).
In addition to the suggestions already mentioned, especially the established POC writers leading travel workshops and POC panels, I would like to see integration on panels on craft. Otherwise it is pure tokenism. Let's have forty panels with white people talking about craft and social media and one about what it's like to be black and a travel writer. That is not diversity. This is throwing scraps from the table and expecting gratitude.
A major call to action, from what I see in publishing and the travel blogging community is from white people. A lot of white travel bloggers talk about the lack of diversity and racism at conferences. But they still go without making any noise. White writers notice the whiteness of travel book lists and representation in publishing. I wrote a post about the all white speakers and all white bloggers attending a discussion on DIVERSITY at the White House in December, and it's again just one of those things that is so normalized nobody thinks much of it (here's the post: http://www.ishqinabackpack.com/the-white-blogger-darlings-and-the-white-organizers-who-love-them/)
White travel bloggers notice how incredibly white their tweetups and press trips are, but it's rare for them to make these comments public. The only time they even make their comments is if a writer of colour says something first, like Oneika the traveler. Some will acknowledge and condemn the racism (CONDEMN!). But they don't make any noise when attending these events or speaking on all white panels, so it becomes one of those things where they're our allies because they feel awful and think racial slurs are the WORST, but they're not really our allies because they're benefitting from this system, essentially supporting our treatment and the silencing of our voices. That's the change I'd like to see.
Travel blogging is a relatively small community and because it's relatively new, one move could completely change the landscape. I don't think the publishing system is broken. It's working the way it's intended. That's the problem.
I agree completely that the white travel writing machine, or even more broadly, the white writing machine has some damn good talent. Part of the reason is the ever expanding definition of White, which has benefitted tremendously from the inclusion of Irish and Russian writers. And I am equally drawn to quality writing. But it's hard not to notice race when all of the authors in the travel literature section of a bookshop are predominantly white males with the occasional white woman finds herself books. Or when white writers are thrust upon us as though there aren't any POC writing about these same issues of isolation, discovery, and adventure. Unless there's a monumental effort put forth, even an avid travel reader of any racial background could go through their entire life never reading a single travel book by a POC. As someone who straddles identities, I find it irritating that even travel narratives of countries like India, or "Africa" as a generic singular entity, are also almost all filled with White writers. I also agree that I would like to see more talented writers storm the internet and the bookshops, but this is assuming talent is the issue. There are plenty of writers of colour who have written some phenomenal books that simply aren't being stocked in bookshelves or appearing on lists. I don't think we've made a clean shift from race and gender to sudden capitalism. It's all of these things, but race and gender are major driving forces in keeping our stories out of the "mainstream."
Only if you a) start using words like "charticle" and "listicle" with a straight face in serious conversations. And b) you refer to these places as countries. Then you get ONE.
". . . but at some point, we have to be willing to just do it, unafraid of what this may mean. How we do it, well, that's the skill of a writer." Exactly, Carol. There's no bullet point sure fire method of writing or reading diversely. You just do it. It takes a lot of courage for POC to speak out or write anything because there is so much at stake.
Travel channel is the whitest channel out there, which is disappointing because there's such great opportunity for diverse voices. It's no wonder a lot of people all over the world are shocked that America isn't full of white people, and the idea someone can be black and French blows their minds.
We're not supposed to use words like racism or white supremacy because it makes people benefitting from this system, who are good people, feel uncomfortable. Instead, we replace these with safer words. Apartheid in South Africa, for example, didn't officially stop as a policy until 1994, the same year the World Wide Web was born. Now nobody in S.A. wants to even acknowledge racism or racist policies still exist. It shifts from personal preference to open exclusion when policies are enforced and keep an entire community out of the main narrative, yet keeping up the myth of inclusion by citing a few POC in the midst. Or if these personal preferences always seem to be leaning towards white males. If this personal preference of those in power also involved women or POC, this conversation wouldn't be happening
Agreed that confrontation or defensiveness won't yield any productive results. Nor will throwing pies. Nobody is suggesting any of these things, and I'm not saying there are any blatantly racist individuals who are hell bent on keeping POC out. The carrot and stick analogy doesn't really apply here because only people with power have the option to use a stick to get what they want. Travel Bloggers of Colour don't have the systematic power to confront any organization with a metaphoric stick, nor can we collectively entice them to do the right thing. So any policy that I or others suggest really depends on whether the organizers decide it's worth the effort to implement.
These are all great ideas and you're absolutely right that for an organization to work there have to be like-minded goals. But Alexa, as awesome as it is, has pretty much zero diversity in its judges to its photojournalism advisory council. Yet they do wonderful work and do benefit POC who apply. The decision to include white people to legitimize an organization is certainly an option and one that many organizations take and do so successfully. The We Need Diverse Books campaign that began last year over a reaction to the all white male panel at Book Con didn't begin by white people complaining about the racism, it was POC and they are thankfully still at the helm of this movement that now includes plenty of white writers and publishers who are involved. But POC are ones who these policies affect systematically, so this is not really going to be a balanced conversation. If you put popular white travel bloggers on an organization with travel bloggers of color, there's no real reason for them to all to put in much effort to diversify the landscape. They get invited everywhere and it's not just because of numbers.
It's great you're invited on press trips and brands work with you. There are plenty of individual travel bloggers of colour who are working with brands and who go on press trips as well, which is fantastic, but the "popular kids" that get invited to the major events and that are on every list are all white. Every single one of them. If this was simply a case of statistics, that these bloggers happened to be some middle class white kids with very popular blogs and it was all about high numbers, I'd say okay POC just need to build up our presence and numbers. But this is not the case. These white bloggers have very different audiences. Family bloggers, solo female travel, budget travel, luxury travel. There is nothing really that connects them together except their whiteness. And there are many very new white travel bloggers without the numbers to really warrant the attention they get, who even get on speaking events while POC don't even get brought on. So I don't really buy that it's a hive mind and race is very low in understanding why everybody is white in travel blogging conferences. Of course if a travel blogger doesn't have high traffic or however a company defines "influence" they shouldn't speak at an event or go on a press trip. No argument there. But this is not as level of a playground as you're presenting it.
I'll take your word about these examples from history. This is an issue that only affects POC, that's the difference. It's wonderful that white people are taking an active part in this conversation, but even if they don't, it still only affects POC. Nobody is suggesting we not allow white people into the conversation or the non-existent movement. I'm certainly not. But the blanket statement that "any movement to benefit minorities" must have white people in it for it to work is not true. VONA doesn't have any white people involved in its running. It's a community only when everyone in that community are vested in change for POC.
I can see Junot saying something like that. That guy is obsessed with race. Only kidding! This is from Hari Kondabulo: "Saying thatI'm obsessed with race and racism in America is like saying I'm obsessed with swimming when I'm drowning. It's absurd. I'm not the one who's obsessed. This country is obsessed."
Absolutely, they should be a part of it. WeNeedDiverseBooks movement is perhaps a better example. The entire aim is to get more POC on panels and their books on shelves with a specific focus on kidlit. It has successfully made the movement accessible to white people, but everyone in positions of leadership on the board are all POC because that's who it affects and they're the ones who know what the key issues are because they face them. No white people made any noise about Book Con's all white male panel in NYC when there were many qualified POC. It started with POC making a noise on twitter, then the movement began, and eventually white people felt comfortable enough to slowly join. I just don't see white travel bloggers making any moves to give up their privilege of speaking at all white panels or being listed in all white lists for the vague notion of equality. That initial collective noise has to come from POC. This conversation is a good start, but it's not a movement because it's not like there's a consensus here.
I've read comments where white people say things like "I have no dog in this fight," essentially making it clear it isn't affecting them, so why waste energy. It's like having an all male panel to discuss women's issues. It's for sure a human issue, but it is only affecting POC who have to deal with it and need to exert a lot of energy into even arguing that a problem exists, often with each other.
Nobody has the option of pretending white people don't exist. White people have the option of pretending we don't exist even in places we are the majority. We are immersed in white culture and white literature and white ideals and values everywhere. Canonical literature. Television shows. Movies. Adverts. Travel books on India or Africa are filled with Paul Theroux and Bill Bryson. and E.M. Forster and Rudyard Kipling, who are all great writers, but it's hard not to see race or color when that you see POC don't even have our own voices where we are the majority. I grew up reading books, but would have to consciously think about it before naming writers of colour. White writers I can make you a long, long list in every subject.
The source and coded criteria for best 25 travel blogs is pretty easy to figure out, especially when it's written by a white blogger who only hangs out and promotes other white bloggers. Best 100 travel memoirs is much more wieldy. Guardian, LA Times, Conde Naste, or countless book blogs and there is a normalized dearth of POC (and women, especially women of colour, and forget about queer women of colour who are simply figments of our imagination). It's not a question of isolated lists.
In ideal circumstances, white people would be pissed off at the all white panels at conferences and lack of equal opportunities for POC and would take to twitter and write posts about the lack of diversity instead of how great it is to have visited the White House, and best coffeeshops near TBEX Dublin. Or speakers would suggest POC instead of quietly accepting the job when they know race is a major factor. I'm not saying white people shouldn't be involved or that I don't like white people. In fact, I have two white friends.
Haha, excellent. My job here is done.
Thanks @hitriddle. The writer makes some good points. India is generally portrayed in the media as an uncomplex country defined by its negative aspects, and defensiveness often becomes the only reaction from Indians and slows down any legitimate discussion from happening. White America is exempt from this generalization. It reminds me of this great satirical essay in Granta from a few years ago by Binyavanga Wainana called "How to Write About Africa" that tackles these issues in fiction through a list of rules: http://granta.com/how-to-write-about-africa/
Agree with you both. We often use words like privilege when we're specifically talking about White privilege, and it all certainly falls under White Supremacy, a term very few people would want to use unless they're talking about the past.