Since I'm new to this whole blogging "thing" I wanted to look around at other pages to see what makes a great blog, and who on this bloody thing I relate to. Well...I stumbled upon a page created by a Spaniard woman whose blog I was of course super interested in reading since I'm moving to BARCELONA in 59 days. Anywho, I looked through all of her pictures and thought, "really creative angles, nice photos', until i came across a few photos entitled "negros", which depicted a family of black people on a train in Spain.
Although I do not know this family, I'm sure there is more to them than just being "negro" and quite frankly I thought it quite sad that all she could come up with to entitle the picture was B.L.A.C.K. She had been so creative when she named her other photos but all she could muster up was that they were black. Nothing else? NOTHING????
I'm moving to Barcelona and I'm more than excited about it but what I continue to think about it is whether or not I will JUST be seen as a negra. I was born in Washington, D.C. in a time, place, and space where I never felt like being black was a bad thing, but the more I live, the more I realize that just because I think black is undeniably beautiful...does no mean that all are in agreement.
Don't people realize that difference is what makes life interesting? That ignorance breeds nothing but more ignorance + intolerance + hatred??? I'm hopeful that if someone happens to take a picture of me on a train somewhere riding around Spain, that they can come up with a title a little deeper than just a shade BUT if that's all they can see...I hope that in that photo I'm able to ilustrar todo lo bello que es ser negra (effectively display how beautiful it is to be a black woman).
2 comments:
you have to understand the novelty factor: black people to this woman is probably something she isn't used to see. If you saw a family of native Indians during your trip to Brazil and took a picture of them, would you consider absurd calling it "Indians". Im by no means finding excuses for that woman, only putting her ignorance into context... love the blog by the way... xxx
If I saw a family of indígenas :) in Brazil and took a picture of them...I would NEVER think to entitle the photo "Indians" and I think that's the difference between me and this random person, and so many other people in the world. Please believe it has nothing to do with being politically correct, it's just who I am. (Anyone who knows me well knows this) Asian people are not Oriental, nor are all Asians Chino/Chinese. Native Americans/or Indigenous in the U.S. are not Indians and Indigenous groups throughout the world are not "Indians". Indians come from India. Being "Negro" is just a way to pigeonhole all "other" people that majority people aren't accustomed to interacting with. There are all kinds of black/brown/tan/white...black people and they are not all the same. These negros do not share the same history, the same lifestyle, or the same languages. There are so many different pieces of blackness. There is blackness in the U.S, there is blackness in Africa, Brazil, and all over the world, and it looks different everywhere...bc it is. I just wish that people saw the differences and the beauty in those differences everywhere...and they don't.
I concern myself with more than just "race" when I look at people. I wonder more about them. If I was seeing someone that is new to me for the first time I would wonder a lot deeper about who they are, what their story is, and why they are in this place where they seem SO different and out of place...but that's just me.
Additionally, I'd say that I wrote about this bc it brought back memories of my first study abroad experience in Spain where I was verbally + racially attacked more than once for nothing more than the color of my skin. It just frustrated me that it seemed that this family's blackness was just a photo op "ooh black people" and not something deeper to explore + inquire about.
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