I’ve seen a lot of posts recently urging others to go travel using catchy little phrases like “just buy the ticket and go!” or “anyone can travel if they really try.” While I’m all for encouraging others to get outside of their comfort zones and see the world, there’s an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed.
The P word. Privilege. Lots of people get defensive when this word pops up, and I get it. If you’re a white person reading this as I am, it may conceivably be tough to admit that we’re overtly more advantaged in life than some others who are underprivileged due to their skin color, socioeconomic status, religion, gender, sexuality… the list goes on. But I cannot understate how problematic the ignoring-your-privilege mentality is. Especially when it comes to the travel community, because it’s so rampant here.
No, not everyone can just buy that ticket and go off to a foreign country next month like you or I can.
First, imagine being Black, knowing that in some countries you will be at best looked at funny, and at worst seriously harmed or killed for the way you look.
Imagine not having an American, Canadian, Australian or EU passport (or other powerful ones) where you have to apply for complex and expensive visas to visit every single country on your bucket list.
Imagine that you are part of the LGBTQ+ community and will literally be jailed if you express yourself in certain countries, and unfortunately be looked down upon in most others.
Imagine that you’re a garment worker in a factory in Bangladesh with a very low salary. The currency you earn your money in won’t go far at all to match the expenses of bucket list destinations like Paris, Tokyo, or Sydney. What you make in a month will barely cover the cost of dinner at a sit-down restaurant.
Imagine that you’re disabled and don’t have the physical ability to stroll around a foreign city for 10 hours per day. Further, it is an unfortunate fact that historical and cultural sites around the world don’t even make it possible for physically disabled people to enter the sites without wheelchair access.
Imagine for a moment that you’re a single mom working two jobs to put food on the table for your toddler, and taking even 1 day off of work would set you back so far you don’t know where your next meal would come from.
These are just a few scenarios of endless ones. As a straight, white, cisgendered, middle-class, American, educated woman I have won the genetic lottery in life. I often ask myself what I did to deserve this comfy, privileged life that those across oceans from me, or the homeless across the street from me in Honolulu, have not inherited. I am no more extraordinary than a Roshingya Muslim woman in Myanmar, persecuted for which God she believes in, nor am I more remarkable than a homeless man who sleeps on the street, steps away from my apartment door where I lay comfortably in bed. Why them and not me?
I guess what I’m trying to do is stress the importance of assessing and understanding the privilege that you were born into in this f*cked up world. Before you post some inspirational travel video with some quote dripping in your privilege, please think twice… Traveling is a luxury that the majority of people in the world don’t even get to entertain thoughts about. The whole “quit your job and travel!” “save up and buy the ticket” rhetoric that is wild in the travel community needs to come to an end.
I don’t really know what my goal is with this post. I just know I couldn’t go on posting about my travels without addressing the undeniable fact that all of this is a huge privilege I’m afforded because of the body I was born into.
Whether you have backpacked around the world for a year, did a 2 month stint in Southeast Asia, or took your family to DisneyLand for a week, you are inherently more fortunate than the majority of the world. No one is saying not to be proud of earning these trips and sharing them with others, but I think we can all benefit from taking a moment to acknowledge our privilege.
