Hashtags have defined pop culture. You spot them all over social media, and now many of them have become popular phrases, especially when they highlight blackness: #BlackBoyJoy, #BlackLivesMatter, #GrowingUpBlack and the list goes on.
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#BlackTravel has become more than a hashtag; it’s a lifestyle, offering up various imagery of beautiful black people all over the world, experiencing culture in a way that only we can. There are a few pioneers in this movement, and one of them is The Root 100 2016 honoree Evita Robinson, founder of Nomadness Travel Tribe.
What started as an expression of a black girl’s affinity for seeing the world morphed into a full-blown cross-cultural takeover, with over 14,000 members. We’re sure the passport-stamp tally in this group is well over a million!
“There’s this invigoration I get from dropping myself into a place I’ve never been before and figuring it out,” Robinson told The Root. The travel connoisseur is well aware of how history stacked the odds against black people who desired to travel beyond their front yard.
Black travelers in the 1930s-1960s relied on The Negro Motorist Green Book, written by a postman named Victor Green. This was a travel guide that listed safe routes and accommodations for black people because traveling was not safe for us, but the desire was still strong.
It’s crazy to think about just how much the odds have been against us, but we make it happen anyway. That’s what’s so beautiful and important about people like Robinson and the movement she’s created within #BlackTravel.
Join the hashtag revolution! Throughout the month of April, The Root will be sharing a few dope videos about these hashtags: #BlackGirlMagic, #Melanin and #SayHerName. Check them out!
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