It’s just sex, right?


That’s what people want to boil it down to. This morning the Root is running two pieces on “sex tourism” to Brazil and other “third world” locales. I pen a direct review of Jewel Woods and Karen Hunter’s book “Don’t Blame it on Rio” and Mark Sawyer does a indirect review of the book as he discusses the representation of Brazilian women in American popular imagination and scholarship.

I decided to write the review after traveling to Boca Chica, Dominican Republic and seeing many of the things that Woods wrote about come to life. I think that the book can open a dialogue that we are seriously in need of around Black middle class men and the lack of accountability that we are allowed to operate with. Yes Virginia, Black male privilege does exist and we need to uncover it, discuss it, and act upon it. Give my piece a read here. No doubt that many of the responses will try to compartmentalize the actions of these “prostituting” brothas, or claim it’s just like sex tourism from other groups, but I think even if it’s like processes that happen in other groups, we really need to begin to address it with care, because it’s having serious effects.

Mark Sawyer, a scholar I respect very much, does a great job of discussing the relationship between “developed” and “developing” nations and characterizations of women. While Sawyer pans Woods and Hunter’s book, he then goes on to suggest there is something that makes Westerners look upon Brazilian women, and others, as mere sexual objects. I’d contend that thing is male privilege coupled with financial capital … which are central to Woods and Hunter’s book. Additionally, Sawyer brings up a question that was troubling me as I read “Don’t Blame it on Rio,” who are Black women? It is likely that many of the women that these Black male tourists are cavorting with are of African descent, but this Diasporic connection becomes dissolved into sex. By saying being with women from Brazil, DR, Cuba, etc is weakening the Black community, are we too narrowly defining the Diaspora? And before you say it, yes I do know men who have traveled abroad, met women, married them, though they are fewer in number then the ones I know who have just slept with women and returned to the US.

A little while back I wrote, “what if everyone knew Black was beautiful?” it was triggered by some deep conversations I had with brothas and sisters in the DR about Blackness and its negativity. Will we ever truly forge a Diaspora? I wonder how do we, as African-Americans, contribute to these negative images as we transverse borders. Alright, that’s enough of me opening cans of worms, I’ll have to revisit some of this later. Thoughts?

Filed under: Class, Gender

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  • AMB

    i said this to you before… but i don’t think i can say it enough. i really think the narrative about black American female consumption of global sex tourism is missing from this narrative. (why doesn’t anyone ever talk about Stella?)

    and although i agree with you that you can’t scare people into “behaving”… i do think that conversation about the HIV/AIDS pandemic is extremely relevant… espcially when we are talking about black communities. AIDS is ravaging the diaspora in the U.S. and the caribbean…. so it seems strange that no one is talking about the irony of an educated black middle class that is very much aware of this, and still chooses to engage in high risk sexual behavior.

    peace :-)

  • AMB

    i said this to you before… but i don’t think i can say it enough. i really think the narrative about black American female consumption of global sex tourism is missing from this narrative. (why doesn’t anyone ever talk about Stella?)and although i agree with you that you can’t scare people into “behaving”… i do think that conversation about the HIV/AIDS pandemic is extremely relevant… espcially when we are talking about black communities. AIDS is ravaging the diaspora in the U.S. and the caribbean…. so it seems strange that no one is talking about the irony of an educated black middle class that is very much aware of this, and still chooses to engage in high risk sexual behavior.peace :-)

  • Dumi

    And let the church say amen. AMJ I think you are right it is really important to interrogate who is going where for what, not because we should be going “tit for tat” but because we need to know in what state of dis-repair we truly are in. I definitely fill you on the HIV/AIDS issue and the author of the book sent me a interview transcript about why he chose not to frame it in that light. With his permission, I’ll post the interview a little later. Thanks for commenting, I see folks are reading, but the cat must have their tongues ;)

  • Dumi

    And let the church say amen. AMJ I think you are right it is really important to interrogate who is going where for what, not because we should be going “tit for tat” but because we need to know in what state of dis-repair we truly are in. I definitely fill you on the HIV/AIDS issue and the author of the book sent me a interview transcript about why he chose not to frame it in that light. With his permission, I’ll post the interview a little later. Thanks for commenting, I see folks are reading, but the cat must have their tongues ;)

  • Marcus Adisa Tyler

    Dumi,The way I see it, judging by how you describe it, Black men are doing what other men have been doing for as long as history cares to disclose. The idea of going to a remote place, where one has no real sense of responsibility, to find a sex-mate isn’t a new concept. It’s the “no strings” sexual relationship that we’re after. Is it right? I don’t believe so because I clearly don’t have any problem with the “strings” (most of the time anyway). But I do see the appeal of going to a place to which I never have to return if I so choose to “get my groove on” and return home when my business is done. The Soldiers that I’m around daily often fantasize about doing that very thing…black and white alike. I’ve considered it or fantasized about it a time or two myself (although I thought of Colombia not Brazil). But I ask myself, “why Brazil?” It can’t be because of some personality trait that they posses because I don’t know anyone from there. I certainly don’t know anyone who would have clued me into something that I would find desirable in their women. Why then? It must be physical. I think of Brazil and I think of Carnivale. I think of scantly clad women with low inhibitions and willing attitudes. I think of an opportunity to explore the outer limits of sexual experience with, as I said before, no strings attached. But isn’t that what I am supposed to think?

  • Marcus Adisa Tyler

    Dumi,

    The way I see it, judging by how you describe it, Black men are doing what other men have been doing for as long as history cares to disclose. The idea of going to a remote place, where one has no real sense of responsibility, to find a sex-mate isn’t a new concept. It’s the “no strings” sexual relationship that we’re after. Is it right? I don’t believe so because I clearly don’t have any problem with the “strings” (most of the time anyway). But I do see the appeal of going to a place to which I never have to return if I so choose to “get my groove on” and return home when my business is done. The Soldiers that I’m around daily often fantasize about doing that very thing…black and white alike. I’ve considered it or fantasized about it a time or two myself (although I thought of Colombia not Brazil). But I ask myself, “why Brazil?” It can’t be because of some personality trait that they posses because I don’t know anyone from there. I certainly don’t know anyone who would have clued me into something that I would find desirable in their women. Why then? It must be physical. I think of Brazil and I think of Carnivale. I think of scantly clad women with low inhibitions and willing attitudes. I think of an opportunity to explore the outer limits of sexual experience with, as I said before, no strings attached. But isn’t that what I am supposed to think?