In a country, The United States of Amerikka, where the movement of Black bodies is seen as a threat, I believe that traveling is literally a revolutionary act. Let’s take it back to the Jim Crow era where brother Victor H. Green created “The Negro Motorist Green Book” in response to encourage and guide African American travelers through the segregated and very much unsafe Jim Crow era. His purpose was to save the travelers of his race of as many difficulties and embarrassments as possible. Sadly what Green was trying to save Black travelers from more than 60 years ago can still be seen manifesting today.
I grew up in Detroit, Michigan. I never traveled much when I was growing up and had no desire to. No one who I knew took extravagant family vacations across the world. All I knew was the seeds of gold confined in the boundaries of Detroit. It was not until I went to college just an hour or so away that I begin to realize how big this world truly is. Then my first semester of college, I took my first international trip to Dubai for a study abroad and have been to well over 10 countries since then. Every trip bringing back much more power than I came with. Today, I am an educator in the heart of Detroit as well as a mom of a very impressionable 5 year old and my goal is to breed consciousness within them as it relates to the movement of Black bodies. Yes, In modern day Amerikka, they only value the movement of Black bodies if it is to a prison cell. The way to combat this, move at your own pace, to your own space, your own space of power.
The greatest lessons I was ever taught has been on my journeys around the world which is why I believe traveling is the best form of education and one of the most powerful forms of resistance. It is so important to learn history separate of what the western culture or as I like to call them “The oppressor” has taught us. My spirit becomes liberated every time I book a trip & my chains begin to unfurl as soon as a step on the plane and by the time I get to my destination you cannot tell me that I haven’t reached another level of liberation. But I know that one cannot aspire to be what they cannot see.
So as I embark on this revolutionary journey of not being shackled in my movements and seeing all of God’s beautiful manifestations, I pray that someone sees my journey and in direct response starts their own, all in hopes of normalizing black travel. Welcome to the Revolution, The Wanderlust Revolution.
Wanderlust Revolution 