movement

[brainwane]

When I was a teen I read Richard Wright's memoir Black Boy, and a few years ago I read The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson, about the Great Migration of black people from the US South to other parts of North America. And some of the details that haunted me most deeply were about white people denying black people freedom of movement, through intimidation (white people telling Wright that he better not think about going north), and through denial of information (a bus station with no posted schedules, so someone thinking of leaving would go and sit in the waiting room at various times and various days of the week, for months, to accumulate knowledge of when buses were going to depart and to where), and through theft and destruction (sheriffs walking through train depots or trains, taking the tickets out of black people's hands and ripping them up).

When I think about that history -- even though that's about migration, not tourism -- it gives me a particular context for cheering for Bryan Washington and Rahawa Haile.

Comments

[altamira16]

Have you ever read about the history of Black Wall Street?

At some point, there was some blog written by a black man who was teaching in Japan. When I tried to find it again, I happened upon the blog Black Tokyo.

[brainwane]

I have only the tiniest knowledge about the history of Black Wall Street, and ought to learn more.

Thanks for the link!

[ivy]

Are you thinking of the Gaijin Chronicles? This post of his got a lot of coverage back in the day, on this topic. He's not a teacher any more, but he's still writing occasionally.

[altamira16]

Yes! That is exactly the one I was thinking of. Thanks.