Traveling While Black — Skin Folk Ain’t Kinfolk (Shady Travel Ninjas Remix)
While Abroad, Many So-Called Black Men Won’t Be Brothers.
Peace God,
I heard that you’re headed out of town. You’re headed to that place where travel ninjas congregate in search of sun and electric relaxation.
Your scheme, your master plan: You’ll fall in love with a thick chick, live the lavish digital nomad life, and build with other so-called Black men. They will be your homies while you’re on the road.
They’ll have your back, and you’ll have theirs.
Then, after you’ve been in fake paradise for a month or two, a ninja steals your foreign, another tarnishes your name in the expat community, and there’s the other shady ninja, the one that doesn’t fuck with you or any other so-called Black men who are traveling — that guy that thinks he’s one of them.
The reality of travel while Black takes hold of you.
Shit is real.
Soon after, you find yourself in your AirBNB punching in the air like Tre, grumbling that travel ninjas are sheisty.
Knowledge this: Your mind ain’t playing tricks on you. Travel ninjas don’t always keep it on the Black hand side.
Skin Folk Ain’t Kinfolk
As for myself, when I set out for the pyramids years ago, I had to learn that so-called Black men won’t always be your brothers abroad. Many will be BRRR-shiesty.
In Brazil, I settled in Rio, thinking that the so-called Black man who helped me find my apartment in Vidigal would be my homie. He was a typical L.A. entertainment industry type who was wavy and didn’t fuck with me after he got his phony realtor money.
Ninja set my gringo ass up in the favela, surrounded by dealers and machine guns, and for the most part, and didn’t-look-back. Wave city for real.
There was the other ninja who set me up with his teaching job in Beijing. I left NYC and flew out to the Asian motherland. After my fake friend realized he couldn’t get a visa at his new job, he reneged and took the job he offered me back — meaning that with below functional level Mandarin, during my first month in China, I was assed out, searching for a job behind the Great Wall.
I’ve been through it during my 6.5 years abroad, and I’ve learned that as you grow as a traveler, you’ll quite often make friends with the strangest and most unlikely characters.
The individuals who offer help when you’re down and out, the people who will be your brothers — they won’t always be so-called Black men.
Why Is It Like That?
I could talk some pro-Black shit about crabs in the barrel syndrome or something like that, but honestly, what I’ve noticed is that most so-called Black men are trying to fit in, and we don’t run shit abroad.
Most expat circles or communities have a hierarchy, and in most countries, we, the so-called Black men, are often operating from a place of scarcity. Ninjas are constantly trying to assimilate. So if you’re a new jack, you’re already at the bottom of the expat totem pole.
Hidden Hands and Your Tribe
I’ve been influenced by the writings of philosopher and writer Joseph Campbell, who mentions that as long as you follow your bliss or your purpose, invisible or hidden hands will come forward.
These hidden hands will manifest as friendships while you’re on your journey.
Some unlikely travel brothers include a redneck from Mississippi, a Filipino dance teacher who prevented me from getting jumped at a Beijing club, a Chinese police officer who paid my bail, a Gambian whose I met in a Hong Kong prison, and a Canadian who had run drugs in Laos.
If you’re on your journey, there will be people who get you, or perhaps they have been in your situation or are just very human.
Don’t get it twisted; there are so-called Black men out in the world who are traveling, who will be happy to build with you and be your brother.
Just remember this build, heed the words of this genius, watch out for the shady travel ninjas, watch your back, your front, and always keep your ‘fazers on stun.’
Clarke Illmatical is a writer and director from Queens, New York. He’s lived in Brazil, China, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Tanzania, Mexico and Guatemala.
He’s the author of the book HOMEBOY AND THE PYRAMIDS: A TRAVEL GUIDE FOR THE SO-CALLED BLACK MAN, which will be available in 2025.