Patricia de Santana Pinho: “African American Roots Tourism in Brazil: Encounters in Sameness, Difference, and Inequality” – April 5, 2012
International tourism has often been criticized for promoting unequal encounters between privileged inhabitants of the World’s centers and their disadvantaged peripheral “Others.” However, recently, new forms of travel have emerged where tourists have sought to employ their privilege, knowledge, resources, and even the status of their nationality for the benefit of the “tourees.” Aware of their power as US citizens and affluent consumers, African American “roots tourists” in Brazil have actively employed their national identity as well as their purchasing power to benefit Afro-Brazilians. The lobbying made by African Americans on behalf of Afro- Brazilians is certainly well intended, and […]