How Passport Stamps Became The New Air Jordans
The burgeoning Black travel group represents billions in tourism. Have passport stamps become a status symbol?
My people have an unhealthy obsession with Air Jordans. We’ve stood in line, fought, and even died for the two threes. Since the days of The Fresh, we’ve wanted to be like Mike, even if it means murdering a nigga.
In the world of Black America, Jordans are more than just a sneaker. For those that obtain the ruby slippers, subconsciously they’ve transcended the overall plight of Black America, clicking their heels past poverty, mediocrity and the stain of slavery.
Decades beyond The Fresh, niggas still want to be like Mike. These days, two threes have been traded in for passport stamps. This knowledge came to me years ago.
Just like this…
It was February 2011. I returned to the States after Brazil spit me out. I did six months in Rio and returned with my tail between my legs. I was salty. I was on that Dame Dash, angry that Jay-Z had left me salt. The reality of actually living in another country got the best of me. It wasn’t an extended vacation. It was filled with difficulty, moments of introspection, and a harsh look at my personality flaws.
I posted YouTube videos; my Brazil does and don’ts. A guy named Vince commented often. He had found my videos while researching Black travelers. We built via email, and he shared info he accumulated from the burgeoning Black traveler community. Vince would make his way to Hawaii in 2012, and after considerable heartache, the universe sent me to China a year later.
Behind the Great Wall, Vince and I continued to build. He kept me in the loop about life in America and his frequent interactions with Black travelers at various meetups, where the conversations sounded like a series of one-upmanships.
“Yo. I just got back from Dubai.”
“Oh, word. I just got back from Dubai. I’m headed to Berlin later this year.”
“Oh girl, that ain’t nothing; I went to Dubai, Berlin, and then Haiti in the same week.”
“Word? I went to Jamaica and Haiti on the same day.”
It sounded like the Black travelers were all into themselves and their shiny new Jordans. Buggin Out’, they even came at me. On my first visa run, I went to Hong Kong. I posted videos about the experience. Some salty dude popped up in my comments, bragging about the countries he visited and all the prostitutes he plowed out.
Really he went like this…
“Fuck you, you ain’t doing shit. I just got back from Romania. You’re broke and, you’re a bum! Next month I’m going to Costa Rica and then Venezuela, stupid!”
He was throwing Damon Dash at me for no reason, and I was kind of confused. Then I realized what was going on. My life in China my travel experience in Brazil it was a big deal. He was a hater, and from his perspective, my life was a pair of Jordans he needed to have.
It was my first experience interacting with a “Just got back nigga.”
These are the Black travelers who pound on their chest about their latest vacation, where they just got back from, and rarely living abroad. No salt intended. I have nothing against tourism. But while I was out, “Just got back niggas” kept popping up in my inbox, trying to compare their vacation with my time living in another country.
Showing off their Jordans, sounding like…
“I’m going here, and I just got back from here. Have you ever been there?”
But whatever. I dodged the salt and kept stepping over their shiny kicks. I was on a journey, other times just trying to survive, and routinely, someone’s cubic zirconian vacation popped up on my timeline.
I could have been all in my feelings, but an article published by Ebony verified my thoughts about the Black travel braggers. The writer courageously compared Black travelers and their accumulation of passport stamps to the old brown paper bag test, which was used as a form of discrimination in the African American community, where people were judged based on the color of their skin. If you were darker than a brown paper bag, even among your people, you weren’t the type of “Negro,” who could go here or be in that club. If your skin was too brown, you weren’t good enough.
Amongst so-called Black travelers, if you don’t have enough stamps, you ‘ain’t’ good enough either.
The status-seeking is real.
Very few Black travelers take time to live in another country and learn a foreign language or embrace a foreign culture. Most are on their passport game. Their stamps are Jordans, all new and fresh smelling, straight out of the box.
Niggas transcend for a moment to be like Mike.
I just hope no one gets shot.
Clarke Illmatical is a writer from Queens, New York. His book Homeboy and The Pyramids — The Travel Guide For The So-Called Black Man, will be available when he gets done with it.