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The Ugly Truth: Travelling While Black in the USA

The Ugly Truth: Travelling While Black in the USA
Author: Hilma Koskinen
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Abstract: This paper is looking at how racism and discrimination in the travel industry of the United States are affecting the travel choices of African American tourists. It will examine the reasons behind the inaccessibility to certain destinations and discuss solutions to the situation.

Keywords: African American, racism, discrimination, USA, travel industry

The special issue of African American travel and the restrictions to it are an important part of the United States’ travel & hospitality industry. It has become a travel market segment generating more than $45 billion every year in the USA and steadily growing (Kilkenny, 2009). Even though we are living in the 21st century, the legacies of racial discrimination and racism still affect the travels of black Americans. The social structures and norms of the American society are affecting the travel choices of African Americans by creating social barriers therefore making large areas of the country inaccessible for them.

The anticipation of discrimination is a factor that excludes many destinations from African American travellers (Ye, 2013). The fear of being discriminated before there is even a possibility it might happen, is something many black tourists base their travel plans on. They tend to make less adventurous trips primarily in groups and mostly visiting friends and relatives (Traveler demographics, 2006). There are reported cases of discrimination by hotel staff and airline personnel that many black tourists face every day (Carter, 2008). Perceived discrimination is also affecting the accessibility by creating social barriers in the minds of black travellers; they feel like they have been subjects to racism even though there is another explanation (Floyd, 1998). This is happening because they have encountered racism so many times, it is distorting the perceptions of behaviour by other racial groups. Black communities continue to pass on these behaviour models and perceptions from generation to generation (Harrison, 2013: Erickson et al, 2009).

Harrison (2013) talks about the access of black people to skiing holidays pointing out that racial spatiality, perception that certain races belong to certain places, is limiting their access to sport holidays. Ski environment is regarded as a white space by majority, thus making black people feel unwelcomed and excluded. Not only is ski environment inaccessible, but also other nature-based destinations such as national parks, beaches and golf courses. Trips involving nature and especially woods, bring out negative connotations and memories of slavery and segregation, which is why African Americans prefer other types of trips (Erickson et al, 2009).

Economic factors that arise from social issues shape the access to tourism destinations. African Americans remain to be the economically subordinate group and their marginal socio-economic status prevents them from gaining the necessary resources to take specific of holidays, like skiing (Harrison, 2013). What prevents these problems from diminishing is the fact that USA has a racialised social body where racism is bound in legal, political and social institutions of the country (Arai & Kivel, 2009). Philadelphia is a good example of a destination where the black travel market has been taken into consideration by incorporating a fusion of politics and racial formation in the urban politics development, which has allowed to improve the status of African American tourism (Grant, 2005).

Marketing is an issue, since black people are rarely included in mainstream advertising or they are seldom targeted as customers. The portrayal of African Americans in ads is a discriminatory feature of segregation since they show black and white people as separate groups. Also, the way tourism providers portray slavery in heritage sites is more from the point of view of the plantation owner and rarely about the lives and sufferings of the enslaved (Alderman, 2013).

There are many African American travel agencies who are shaping the black travel market to a more positive direction, even though the agencies have experienced problems in the 21st century industry due to airliner and government regulations, expensive technological advancements and industry demands. Furthermore, high barriers of entry and social obstacles are affecting the number of holidays they are able to offer to their customers (Butler et al, 2002).

There are signs of improvement since many destinations have started to show anti-racist messages to attract African American customers (Alderman, 2013). Because of the way the industry is shaped at the moment, it continues to contribute to the problems of racial inequalities by producing an uneven cultural distribution of accessibility to black tourists. Changing the negative beliefs towards African Americans is a policy objective hard to achieve and it is not solely dependent upon leisure service providers. With the help of empowering black tourist operators and recognising that racism and discrimination are serious issues that still exist, it is possible to change the prejudiced landscape of the US tourism industry.



References:
Alderman, D. H. (2013) Introduction to the Special Issue: African Americans and Tourism. Tourism Geographies: An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 15 (3), 375-379.

Arai, S. & Kivel, B. (2009) Critical Race Theory and Social Justice Perspectives on Whiteness, Difference(s) and (Anti) Racism: A Fourth Wave of Race Research in Leisure Studies. Journal of Leisure Research, 41(4), 459-470.

Harrison, A. K. (2013) Black Skiing, Everyday Racism, and the Racial Spatiality of Whiteness. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 37 (4), 315-339.