Review, of African-American Travel Narratives from Abroad: Mobility & Cultural Work in the Age of Jim Crow, by Gary Totten (original) (raw)

Persons of Colour and the Travel: 12 Years a Slave as the Travel of Blacks

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences

Every travel is a search for the exploration of the self. And black travels are no different. The paper is an attempt to explore the agonizing and tormenting journey of the blacks from Africa to the American mainland, where the effect of the travel on the blacks are given an extra emphasis. The historical taintedness of travel writing genre along with the intensity and the challenges of the black travel are deliberated here. The much celebrated slave narrative 12 Years a Slave cannot be just limited as slave narrative. There is a catalyzed orientation and disorientation of the body and the self in these travel writings. It is in fact the life journey of every black in America. More than the struggles the book opens up a strong cultural and political discourse, which defines and redefines the self and identity of the blacks.

Intranational and interracial travel in Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

TRAVEL WRITING IN AND BEYOND THE ANGLOSPHERE: BORDERS AND CROSSINGS, 2018

Abstract. ‘The world’s landscapes are but the screen on which the past, present, and anticipated cosmic vanity of mankind is written. Land is the palimpsest of human needs, desires, meaning, greed, and fears’. James Houston’s vision of landscapes as reservoirs of the most fundamental aspects of humanity supports the cognitive value of traveling as far as interhuman relationships are concerned. This, in its interracial dimension, was a primary interest of John Howard Griffin. In 1959 the renowned white Texan journalist went on a tour of the Deep South, a quest preceded by a specific medical treatment resulting in Griffin’s skin turning black. The journey was documented in the bestselling memoir Black Like Me, which is a testimony of Griffin’s passing as a black man, the resulting alienation, dealing with ‘the hate stare’ and, finally, him re-examining his own racism. The aim of my article is to demonstrate that, although some critics claim his passing was a failure (e.g., Kate Baldwin’s assertion that Griffin’s blackness is only superficial as the author sustains his ‘white’ jargon both in thought and talk), the discussed memoir approaches the racial Other by sharing some vital features with the slave narrative (its purpose being the enhancement of communal consciousness or asking a white person to preface and thus authenticate the story).

Black Travel Tribes: An Exploration of Race and Travel in America

2020

This chapter examines race and leisure travel in America. It explores the impacts of racial inequality, segregation and discrimination on the travel industry. This work aims to examine how the history of Black Travel has led to the existence of Black Travel Tribes. It will also describe the nature of the tribes, why they exist, and what they hope to accomplish for Black travellers around the world. The chapter will begin chronicling the impacts of slavery and segregation on Black Travel, followed by an exploration of Black Travel Tribes, their shared identities and collective mechanisms, concluding with a discussion on growth opportunities and challenges facing the tourism industry regarding Black Travel Tribes. 1 Understanding the Past Black i people in the United States have been plagued with racial inequalities, segregation and discrimination for centuries (Foster, 1999). Unfortunately, the travel and tourism industry has not been immune to these inequities. On a global scale, the tourism industry has traditionally been White washed, paying little attention to the authentic experiences of racial and ethnic minorities, creating an invisibility of Black people in the travel sphere (Buzinde, Santos & Smith, 2006). In the marketing realm, travel and tourism has traditionally portrayed leisure vacations with all White faces (Burton & Klemm, 2011; Davis, 2018; Martin, 2004). In fact, more specifically, Martin (2004) highlighted that leisure activities in outdoor spaces were portrayed through magazine advertisements as a predominantly White space. As an attempt to create a racial bridge, the industry produced separate advertisements that highlight Black faces, perpetuating the old American Jim Crow ii segregation laws-"separate but (un) equal" (Alderman, 2013). There is also evidence that Black communities have even been marginalized at heritage tourism sites in the United States, sites that are meant to highlight the brutalities of slavery (Alderman & Modlin, 2013; Benjamin, Kline, Alderman & Hoggard, 2016). Unfortunately, a recent study on marketing and racism done by Davis (2018) revealed that not much has changed. Research on Black travel has been conducted sparingly by a relatively small group of researchers over the last few decades (

Afro-American Travel Literature and Africanist Discourse

Black American Literature Forum, 1990

... C. Gruesser teaches writing and world literature at Purdue University-Calumet and is working on two books, one concerning comtemporary fiction and travel writing about Africa by ... Miller builds on Michel Foucault's analyses of discursive systems and Edward Said's Orientalism. ...

Black Female Travel: Diasporic Connections and Revolutionary Desire

Resisting Paradise (University Press of Mississippi), 2015

The Caribbean American writers examined in chapter three, Paule Marshall and Audre Lorde, seek a spiritual home in the Caribbean, the home of their parents and ancestors. More specifically, they write and thereby claim multiple homes in transnational spaces through the Caribbean and an African diasporic identity. Both Marshall and Lorde directly challenge neocolonial discourse and tourism by creating alternative Black female travel narratives that represent diasporic travel, identity, and multiple homespaces. They both introduce new forms of tourism and possibilities for resistance to neocolonialism, while uncovering the strong continuities between the racial, sexual, and gender dynamics of colonialism (and slavery) and neocolonialism (and tourism).