In July 2020 I was allowed to visit my friend and her family in Athens and on the Peloponnese, observing the hygiene measures. Athenians, tourists, hikers, and other immigrants still participated in various activities when pandemic restrictions cleared the streets of the usual American summer visitors, allowing for a less crowded perspective of the city. Between the souvenir stalls, African women sat under the unforgiving city sun, promoting their braiding and turning skills with pictures of Kim Kardashian and other white celebrities wearing braids and cornrows. These women understood their customers well because Athenians and tourists visibly consume African culture by adopting hairstyles and making and buying African home decorations, figurines and fabrics in white art shops. As a black woman, I can talk to phenomena that I have experienced such as: B. Turning away from one’s own image, immigration and the effects of tourism, although I cannot claim to speak for African immigrant families.

Still, the use of black culture in Athens is clearly disproportionate to actual exposure to the African diaspora, which is limited to the scanty immigrants who are typically artisans, merchants or farm workers in rural areas. If she doesn’t take up any space, the black woman turns into a consumer good, a fashion feature, a design for men’s Bermuda shorts. It is (incorrectly) presented as a sign of artistic creativity by white Europeans who call themselves “content creators” or “designers” and rely on the word “original”. Black women, however, exist just outside of these “exclusive art boutiques” and live a reality that differs so far from the exoticized figures that they are not even recognized.

The myth of a homogeneous exotic Africa alienates very real African women who are so alienated from their own image that they are not recognized as the originators of their own cultures. Appropriation is theft. It helps to undermine black self-identification and the worth of blacks. White designers are direct witnesses to the black struggle and yet choose to spread the white-stained lie of a palatable black culture for consumption that continues to harm black people.

It is indeed a survival burden that black women in Greece sit outside all day and sell their priceless culture for little money to unencumbered people. Frivolous white fashion trends create invisible threads that expose black entrepreneurship and livelihood to cultural appropriation and force us to work together.

This constant denial of power, agency, and credit through systematic cultural appropriation is an experience shared across the immigrant family. It is common for black parents and children to do merchandising day and night in tourist Greek squares. One night in Nafplion reveals an abusive power dynamic when tourists enjoying drinks and tzatziki band together to harass black vendors and give them free items under the helpless eyes of their black children. While some mistakenly cry, others blame the misery of the black sellers’ behavior and demonize them in front of their own children who help with the sale.

European tourists vacation abroad and have the privilege of making it an enjoyable experience for themselves. They do not care for those who lack agency, resources, and power to do the same, thereby exacerbating that need. As wealthy whites and potential customers whose well-being is cared for, tourists abuse black immigrants and black locals through ignorance and consumption.

Travel not only escapes one’s own reality, it enters the lived reality of others and forms power relationships that must be queried. It is therefore important for Westerners to review their privileges and question their role in leaving the West and / or interacting with non-Western cultures, as such interactions and tourism have their roots in colonialism. It is a controversial but relevant question whether it is even possible to decolonize tourism, given that power and decision-making differences exist with regard to travel, migration and exodus at the global level. Still, it remains crucial for those who have the privilege to think critically about the cost of their benefits to blacks, indigenous peoples, and people of color.

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