Privilege and Travel

      I was on Facebook earlier today and I saw on my homepage that one of my friends had posted a link to the blog, "I Studied Abroad in Africa!" I started reading and couldn't help but laugh. The blog's intro reads,
     "So. 

     You go to one of those fabulously elitist schools where everyone talks about privilege, classism, racism, sexism, etc. as if  they don't practice it in real life. But in order to really see the world, they decide to go somewhere where they can understand what their privilege looks like. So they choose AFRICA! Yay! A whole continent dedicated to helping white people understand what it means to be poor and undeveloped.

    This is for all you fabulous biddies who decided that Africa was the right place for you. There's nothing like good 'ole exotification to fill up your time while basking in the hot Saharan sun, wearing your "traditional" African clothes, eating "weird" foods and taking as many photos of black children as possible. You go, Gurl with lots of privilege! This is dedicated to you."

Most of the rest of the blog is filled with images and entertaining captions, but at points does delve into a deeper discussion of privilege and travel. The blog might go a little too far and might be a little too cynical, yet at the same time it brought these issues of privilege and travel to mind. Honestly, I've been too focused on many of the logistics of traveling to ponder the larger issues of the journey. For one, I'll be traveling with students of some of the most elite schools in the world to areas of extreme poverty. 
        The aforementioned blog made me curious, and so I decided to see what else the internet offered on the subject. A Google search led me to the wonderful blog and book series, "Stuff White People Like," which as it turns out, has a fair amount to say about white people, privilege, and travel. According to the site, white people like, 
          - Traveling  
          - Study Abroad 
          - Knowing What's Best for Poor People
          - Non-Profit Organizations
The entries are funny, and honestly, there's some truth to them. (For a fun game, go down the list with a group of friends and figure out how white each person is) Furthermore, on the trip we'll study natural medicine and have the opportunity to practice yoga, two more on the list.  
      One morning, my dad also stopped me in the kitchen and said, "You know, you're going to see some of the worst poverty in the world on this trip, and as a white person, people are going to tell you it's your fault. Well, it's not. Others are going to make you feel like it's your responsibility to alleviate the poverty, and there's no right answer to that. You're going to have to decide that for yourself."
     To put all of this together, I'm aware of the fact that as a white American tourist, it can be very easy to look and act like a stereotypical white, imperial, American tourist. But as the Africa blog showed, usually anything a white person does can be interpreted as an imperial American tourist. I think the best way to avoid this is to treat everybody I can with respect and as an equal, but at the same time accept my background and what I bring to the table. I don't think it will get anybody anywhere if I feel guilty for being privileged, just as it won't if I pretend to be someone I'm not.  
     Just as I don't want to treat people differently, I also don't want to be treated differently by those around me. For instance, the blog Our Delhi Struggle, by two New Yorkers living in Delhi, wrote a post describing their experiences with 'white privilege' in India. They found that as white people, it was pretty hard to avoid in India and many times they had to insist against being treated preferentially. So overall, I don't want people to think that I'm looking down on them and I don't want people to think they have to treat me like a special citizen. This might be harder to actually practice than I expect, though.