Elconquisto... Uh... Ok...

I was really looking to hear someone else opinion in here.
Thank you Rocknrod for the salud.
Cheers to u mate!

"and justice for all"

I dont think I can handle the heat in that one...

I know enough to back down when out gunned! (Learned that just the other day...)

(Insert big grin here!)

Rock,
I hoped you would have just considered the source.

elconquistador,
I think no one has answered your post because it isn't very clear. You sound like you are just looking for a fight and I am quite surprised that the mods didn't close this thread a long time ago.
I will say that it sounds like you were treated completely wrong. It also sounds like you are willing to put people into groups and judge them yourself. That is equally wrong.
If I misunderstood your post, I'm sorry.
Let this thread die. No good can come of it.

I was trying to see if someone here can see whats really going on with civil liberties and "freedom".
I wish sometimes that we could all be like in a big family.
money is power and may be thats the reason why we have so many wars and fights for control.
peace

Gotta avoid the sibling rivalry of the grand scale that causes you to never see your brother again...

Ran across this thread and thought it was infinitely fascinating for a lot of reasons

I think the original solicitation is a valid one, but it should've been rephrased to be, "how has the color of your skin affected your travels?" It's blunt, but it is indeed true that different countries have different attitudes to different races. And I think it would be really interesting to hear about different people's experiences. I think that was the original spirit of this thread.

I'm not black, but I'd be curious to hear how a black person was received in Laos, say. Or how an asian person got along in Ghana, for instance.

Most of the people on this board are probably reading in a country that has more advanced, liberal, and accepting attitudes towards all sorts of people, but much of the world isn't like that

As an Asian-American, I found racist attitudes to be about the same or slightly worse in most western white-majority nations such as in Europe and Australia. In Asia, I was often mistaken as a person of local descent (but probably not actually as a local). For example, people in Thailand thought I was Thai although I am not.

In India, I was an oddity, but not in a way that made me uncomfortable.

I don't think the original question was really ambiguous at all. It is clear that he was asking what it is like to be a non-white traveler doing an extended trip around the world. Yes, I realize that white people are technically minorities in many places, but the point is that a) most RTW travelers are white and b) racism against non-white (Especially darker skin color) people is far more common in most areas of the world than racism against white people.

Lonely Planet actually has a section in some (maybe all) of its guidebooks about issues for minority travelers. There's no need to argue about whether "minority" is a relative term when we all know what the question and underlying issues are.

Ha, I know this is an old thread, but I'm new here.

I have an odd perspective on this issue, because I'm half-Korean, half-caucasian, but raised by my white father. Which means I'm a 6 foot tall Korean guy with mixed features. Generally, while traveling (hell, anywhere, even the bar near my house), people love to play the "what's my ethnicity" game, which depending on how tired I am, I can good-naturedly play along with or shut down in irritation. Essentially, no one anywhere really knows "what I am". In countries where white people are the majority (that aren't the U.S.), I often get mistaken for being Mexican (which really just means anything from Central or South America when you're talking to people in certain European countries.) In the countries people think I'm from, like Mexico (a few Hungarians thought I was Mexican, and were excited because they had never met a Mexican), they tend to think I'm a native. Often times a half-native, due to my height, but until I open my mouth, a native nonetheless.

In my first trip to Mexico City last year I actually got hassled/cheated/teased a lot less than a white girl I was traveling with, much to her frustration (she spoke fluent Spanish to my clumsy, phrasebook assisted "Que?")

Asians often assume I'm their own ethnicity (again, only half. I have a largish bridged nose.) Hell, last month a lady at a local Chinese restaurant had dozens of questions for me because she couldn't understand why my name wasn't Chinese (it's Irish, due to a wayward uncle many, many generations back.) In Ireland, I imagine I'd get a similar response. Sometimes the enthusiasm of Asians especially can be exhausting. I once spent ten minutes trying to explain to a Chinese exchange student that I could not read or speak any Korean, no matter how many times he wrote phrases down in his notebook for me.

Generally, I've found being "in the middle" is a positive when traveling, as long as the culture is accepting of travelers. And not being white (or all white), people don't assume I'm from the U.S., which can be a positive thing (especially pre-Obama. It's surprising how much those attitudes have changed in such a short time.)

When talking to people from cultures that aren't ethnically diverse, I sometimes have difficulty explaining my status to them, because they associate ethnicity directly with nationality. As a typical example, some Nepalese students (who were at first excited because they thought I was Nepalese), asked me "Where are you from?" I actually wasn't trying to be difficult, but after a long shift at work, I just answered "Ohio". Then they said, "Yes, but where are you from?" I told them I was born in Germany. "Where are you from, originally?" Florida. You get the idea. You have no idea how often I have this conversation, even with people from the U.S. It usually moves on to "Where are your parents from?" With some other exchange students, I actually explained I was half-Korean, but I spent another 20 minutes trying to explain I have never been to Korea. It can be exhausting. Whenever I'm near an area in the U.S. that's close in proximity to a reservation, people assume I'm a Native Americanl. I've disappointed countless people by not being Cherokee, Seminole, Sioux, and many others (Oh? Your boyfriend is Cherokee? How interesting! Even though I told you 15 minutes ago I was Korean, making this entire conversation moot due to our having nothing in common!) including people from those tribes as well.

I've been mistaken for everything, Indian (dots), Indian (feathers), Mexican, Nepalese, all the -eses, actually, Inuit, Hawaiian, the list is pretty endless. And generally, while traveling, it's been a mostly positive (if you can maintain the right attitude) experience. My physical differences intrigue people, and their curiosity can open doors. It can make people patient with you, protect you (less likely to be a "rich" American tourist), or talk to you when they otherwise might not. In areas where travelers are welcome, I can't imagine it ever being much of a negative, because presumably they see all types, even if they mostly see white travelers, depending on the destination.

Honestly, it's not something I worry about, as a traveler. It's much more of an issue when I've lived places (such as Germany, when I was a child. I experienced discrimination there I couldn't even tell was racism until much later in life, because as a kid you don't have words for it.) As a resident who is not just "passing through", people are much less tolerant, perhaps because you're not just there to give them your money. But that's a different situation entirely. Here in New Orleans, I often feel caught in the middle of the extremely visible conflict of black vs. white, culturally, socially, and economically. I have been threatened, verbally assaulted, and otherwise harassed and mistreated within blocks of my own neighborhood more often here than I ever have abroad (except in Monmarte, when some Algerians tried to mug me. But I think that's because I was obviously a tourist), by people in black neighborhoods and white kids from the local rich universities. In the city where I mainly grew up and went to high school, white folk who came in from Plant City (it's big on agriculture, if you can guess) would assume I didn't speak English, and say, I shit you not, "What's the matter? You can't talk English none?"

And these experiences aren't the majority. They happen just often enough to remind you that you're different. But as a traveler, that's almost the point. No matter where you'll go, you'll be different, and people are okay with that. They might even welcome it. But while people may smile at you, take your money, ask you questions or buy you a drink when you're visiting, I feel like anywhere you settle down for a long period opens you up to xenophobia. But I also think people are mostly kind, it just takes a few (and let's be honest, sometimes a hefty chunk) of the mean-spirited to influence your experience, often negatively.

Anyway, to wrap up this extremely long ramble, and get back to the original post's point (pulled from its archived grave), I deal with being a minority pretty much anywhere I'm likely to go, even in the U.S., by being (hopefully) patient, good-natured, honest (unless being honest would seem to invite personal harm), and trying to smile and represent myself positively as if I were any traveler they were meeting. I mean really, examining my examples, most of the time people were just being friendly, and trying to connect with me via what they felt was our shared ethnicity. But I'm also ready to remove myself, or take a fellow traveler or comrade's advice regarding precautions, which really applies to safety in any area with which you're unfamiliar.

I hope any of this was helpful, and not just because I love hearing the sound of my own typing.