I am an ambiguous bi-racial POC to strangers and when I travel internationally people often assume I am whatever they are. When I was in Brazil a native Brazilian spoke to me as if I understood Portuguese. I responded in my rudimentary SoCal Spanish that I did not understand. It was so subconscious and embarrassing. Years later I now have the language to recognize this for the micro aggression that it was. I consider myself to have cultural consciousness and I totally stumbled. I cannot even imagine if she were to wander outside of her pod out of the insulted hospitality sector where English is spoken😬Out in the wild on the streets she would look like the biggest mark for the taking oozing awkward visible discomfort. All while giving her “don’t they know who I am vibe”. Hot mess express coming through 🚂 São Paulo can be an overwhelming city to the worldliest traveler to say the least. She is not even a traveler she is a vacationer.
I am an ambiguous bi-racial POC to strangers and when I travel internationally people often assume I am whatever they are. When I was in Brazil a native Brazilian spoke to me as if I understood Portuguese. I responded in my rudimentary SoCal Spanish that I did not understand. It was so subconscious and embarrassing. Years later I now have the language to recognize this for the micro aggression that it was. I consider myself to have cultural consciousness and I totally stumbled. I cannot even imagine if she were to wander outside of her pod out of the insulted hospitality sector where English is spoken😬Out in the wild on the streets she would look like the biggest mark for the taking oozing awkward visible discomfort. All while giving her “don’t they know who I am vibe”. Hot mess express coming through 🚂 São Paulo can be an overwhelming city to the worldliest traveler to say the least. She is not even a traveler she is a vacationer.