Remote Year Is Not Safe for Women of Color
To be clear, I was warned
Before I made the decision to join Remote Year this summer, I spoke to other Black people and I read about their experiences in the program. Remote Year, I was told, was making some perfunctory efforts to be more inclusive, but I shouldn’t hold my breath. The message from each person of color I spoke to was clear: These folks don’t care about you. You’re coming for the travel and the professional network. Period. And so, with open eyes, I saved my coins and spent my money on a four-month, work and travel experience around the world.
In the first day of orientation, we were told that we were “tramily” (travel+family), that the group would really make the trip, and that if we just followed our group norms we would learn and grow together as we traveled the world. As one of only two Black people in a group of 21, I looked around the room and wondered about that.
An hour later, a circle of white girls on the trip talked excitedly about our upcoming time in Croatia, Portugal, and Spain and wondered out loud about our last destination: “Aren’t you terrified of South Africa though?” Immediately and pointedly, I asked, “Why would you be terrified?” Three pairs of doe-eyes stared back at me. “Because of all the crime,” they said. There were no mentions of crime in Europe, which has…
