Visible Minority

Visible minority

I bet that the combination of words, visible minority, have flown past you without giving the literal meaning much thought. That changes quickly when you look like me (born in Ireland) and you travel in India.

When I travel, I like to observe, take pictures and try me best to soak it all in. I want to blend in, become invisible, and, above all, I don't want to feel like a tourist.

On our trip to India this has been next to impossible. I am constantly targeted by street vendors, store owners, taxi drivers, and the poor.

I am truly in the minority because of how I look and I am often treated differently because of It. Sometimes it works out in my favour ( like when I need help at a hotel) but just as often it works against me (like when I'm waiting in line for something and someone ignores me in favour of someone else).

It's something that followed me in all 6 of the weeks we have traveled in India. On one hand all the relatives want to make sure that I, the foreigner, am OK and looked after. But I also have to put up with people, staring at me ( and my kids).

It also manifests itself in an usual way. When we go to visit a fort, or some other tourist attraction, people often ask me about taking pictures. Usually, I expect that they want me to take a picture of their whole family

But it's not what you think. They don't want me to take pictures of them with their family. They want me to be IN the picture with their family. I have become a tourist attraction. At first I said no to these requests, especially if they asked about taking pictures of the kids. Now, I laugh it off and happily get in the picture with strangers and let them take as many pictures as they want.

Of course, the take home lesson here is that I have had a life changing trip. I have walking in someone else's shoes and found it distasteful. I, now, can more readily emphasize with people in our Canadian society who may be marginalized based on the color of their skin.

And I find it funny that their are probably about 10 different individuals that are showing group photos to their loved ones and explaining about the big Canadian guy standing right in the middle.