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| Looks like a cute, innocent little market, right? |
Look, I love living in Europe, I really do.
But it isn't paradise, not by a long shot.
Europe has seedy parts, overflowing dumpsters, and philandering politicians that seemingly number in the thousands. Just like everywhere else.
The most awkward part for me is the racism. I am not going to sugarcoat here - there is a pretty strong underlayer of latent racism here in Spain. I'm not saying they're even necessarily going to show it to you right off the bat, because Spaniards are still quite a genial bunch, but being at least mildly racist is still pretty socially acceptable here in a way it hasn't been in the States since, oh, 1982? ish?
The country, if you remember, was pretty closed off for a huge part of the 20th century under the dictatorship of Franco, and non-Spaniards didn't really start flowing in immigration-wise until the past couple decades. It still shocks them, especially older Spaniards, and they'll tell you with kind voices and gentle hands on your arm to not go into that one neighborhood "because it's full of Gypsies," or that the best place in town to buy cheap goods is from the Chinese, putting their fingers to the corners of their eyes and stretching their skin for emphasis.
To an American (and a millennial to boot), it's....awkward. I know I said that twice but I don't know what else I can say about it.
There is no moral to the story and no cute anecdote or anything. I just thought that since I give a pretty solid majority of this blog to the many joys of Europe in general and Spain in particular, I thought it would be fair to step back and do a little audit occasionally. Maybe I'll make it a series called "Europe has dumpsters too!"
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| Here's the sign above that little fruit market. The barely civilized indigenous man serving the white man his afternoon tea. AWKWARD. |
oh gosh, for realsies. My black friend Jasmine had an old lady in Sevilla come up to her and rub her skin, then gape in astonishment: "it doesn't come off!"
ReplyDelete...just wow.
the socially acceptable racism thing is one of the most difficult aspects of life here for me too. It's tough because you don't want to make a huge deal about it, but you don't want to get accustomed to it either. Anyway, thanks for doing this post, I was honestly kind of under the impression that you were living in some kind of crazy perfection bubble down there in Malaga!
Thank you so much for posting this. In my past visits, I have had mostly positive experiences being a black female but a few "make me shake my head" moments as well. I just accepted a position for the 2011-2012 year and I only hope things continue to get better.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. But there is also a difference between mean-spirited racism and ignorance. That old lady that Kit mentioned...I doubt she really gets it and she's probably never been around a real, live black person before. (Unfortunately.) I argue with my Spanish boyfriend a lot about things I see as racism which he does not.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts! Kaley, I totally agree with you about the fact that it's often more ignorance than maliciousness. Oftentimes I think, especially with the older generation, that they would be genuinely dismayed to think that someone found them offensive - they just think everything is fine and dandy and are kind of products of their worlds.
ReplyDelete