UK - NO EXIT STAMPS! THEY LIED TO ME & CALLED ME A LIAR

To show you how racists UK immigration are, one of the demerits leveled against granting me entry was the lack of departure, or exit, stamps in my passport from the time I left London when I travelled via bus to Berlin. Their stance was that I, in fact, overstayed my welcome and sneaked out and here was the proof: no Exit stamps!

They dismissed my assertion that the officials didn't stamp my passport as unbelievable and grasping at straws

Only get this: there are no such things as Exit stamps. Blimey, limey sonsofbitches. But you don't have to take my black word for it. Here's a white blogger by the name of Nomadic Matt. Happy reading!

With the deluge of desperate peoples fleeing eastern Europe and Africa for London I like to think the chickens are coming home to roost. 

#FuckIsrael

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Or to be more eloquently blunt:

Stand your ground

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Ever wonder if Argentina has black people?

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Josephine Baker wondered so and got this fabulous reply: You and I. 

Read more: A Muckraker Other 

Scholar Spartan

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A racist is something one hates being called 
but not necessarily hates being.

-- Scholar Spartan

Talk about mixing with a white crowd!

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Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! America has a black president AND a black klansman? Shiiiet. No, not that has-been hack Michael Steele but a real, live black Klu Klux Klan member by the name of Ron Stallworth. And here, throughout my travels, I thought I was always around white people.

But hold on to your multiculturalist applause. There's a caveat: Mr Stallworth was an undercover policeman. But who, you ask, did he manage to stay under the sheet without even failed presidential candidate David Duke finding out? Read the Huffington Post article here. 

Better still, visit his personal web log
Black Klansman.

What's next! Men marrying men??

Border bullies (VIDEO)

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United Kingdom Border Assholes (UKBA) is, like many Immigration agencies, staffed by the lower rungs of society who feel validated by their dispensable position on a gov't force. Much like poor white trash divines some divine pride from the mere fact of having pale skin never mind having no formal education, land, bank account, artistic endeavors, or marketable skills outside of auto mechanics or pig farming.

stopped from entering Scotland because I had "sexy underwear" in my luggage

The following report regards the Home Office's bullying tactics on discriminating against foreign students. But it is not solely brown and black students the British authorities dislike. Last September I was stopped from entering Scotland because I had "sexy underwear" and lube in my luggage! The Home Office has yet to reply to my written complaint. The UK resents -resents - having allowed so many people of color, many from its former colonies, onto the island, itself, and is enforcing "reforms" to roll back that tide. Roll, roll your boat and your puny industries. The world dynamics can prosper very well with the American and Eastern markets as well as most markets from European countries. I don't know that I have one thing in my apartment that's MADE IN ENGLAND but I have many things which read MADE IN CHINA/JAPAN/MEXICO/USA.

Are there any readers of color who felt they received undue attention from British border officials?

( @RT_com )

So sexy it's a crime

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Excuse the absence in posts. I was locked up.
Read about it here.

Go back to your country!

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This is old hat but I share it because it is one of the principals of this web log: to relay persistent, 'every day' racism that occurs to me (especially in places where racism doesn't exist).

I boarded a city bus in Guadalajara and waited for my change.
"What change?" the driver wondered.
I thought I gave him $7 pesos. The fare is six.
"No, you gave me six pesos," he said with a touch of attitude.
Did I? Maybe I did.
"Oh okay. Fine," I said. "It was a mistake -- an honest mistake."
He was an old man and I wanted to punch him in his cigarette wrinkled face.
As I made my way to a seat he had the gall to quip, "Vas a tu pais!"
Go back to your country!

And which country would that be?

It kills me when Mexicans let this fly as easy as their phony "amigo" salutation.
Especially when they are the ones constantly jumping the border into a foreign country to give birth and to attain a "better life" and a "real chance to make a living." 

Vas a tu pais! And which country would that be? America? Canada? Jamaica? Indonesia? Or, like many Mexicans honestly assume, Africa? (Yes, I know Africa is a continent but let's not miss the forest for the trees here.)
I kept the inconsequential ticket from the ride and, upon returning to the hostel, called the customer service number listed to report what that old bastard told me. The ticket has the number of the bus route and driver on it so, hopefully, he got called into the office when he returned to the garage. I doubt anything in the form of punishment is possible but maybe now he'll think (twice) before opening his big arrogant, ignorant mouth next time.

What's worse than a book critic?

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Answer: A volunteer critic.
Those who can't, teach; and those who can't do that, diss & moan. At Lulu.com one opined I wouldn't succeed because the majority of book buyers are white (and then proceeded to impersonate Ebonics). Read more about my brush with these delusional 'experts' in The importance of dismissing volunteers.

I make no time for drama queens & sexless men.

UK Border Assholes

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Once again the best laid plans of mice and men were screwed up by a bitch working at border patrol (it should go without saying she was a white bitch).

Two days ago I was on a bus from Paris to London (after having spent half a day riding the train to Paris...ICE was five - five! - hours behind schedule because of a little snowfall that wouldn't even make a Hoosier sneeze). Exited through French Customs without problems but two minutes later at the UK Customs I had nothing but problems -- starting with the white bitch.

It was a criminal interrogation. They wanted a fugitive; I am not that.

Never mind that I had a doctor's appointment in London, reserved lodgings and plenty of money the UK Border Patrol were more concerned with:

• why I wasn't in America? 
• why I travelled alone?
• where did I live in Germany, Italy, USA? (seriously they wanted the addresses)
• if I visited the Middle East?
• how did I get money? 
• and why wasn't I in America (again)?
• why didn't officials stamp my passport?

Why? Because any single black man travelling outside of America must be on the run from the Law. He can't possibly be a writer. Black people don't "backpack". That much is true: We blackpack. After two hours I knew I wasn't going to London so I stopped cooperating. They wanted a fugitive and I am not that. After four hours of this extra "interviewing" the pig went through every content of my luggage; every piece of note paper...every page of book, including my diary...every item of toiletry...every snack...and he even counted out every single euro I had. This was not an "interview". It was a criminal interrogation.

Of course, to their chagrin, they found 

• zero contraband
• zero bomb schematics 
• zero drug paraphernalia
• zero outstanding arrest warrants or felony charges
• zero extra passports

Then they wanted to finger print me and archive them in a "visitor" database for a decade. Oh hell no! Prisoners are finger printed, not tourists...especially when  no one else in the course of that evening was removed from his bus, searched, and presented with an ink pad. But, of course, these racist pigs aren't racist! After seven hours - at midnight! - French police were called to escort me back to the French side where they left me on the sidewalk. No more buses were running so I was stuck in the dead of cold night in the middle of nowhere. 

So I missed my medical appointment and wasted lots of plans & money on travel reservations. I don't need to steal work from some British schmuck. I'm American! In fact, if the UK is so concerned with keeping their own employed they need to take back their limey asshole scum journalist Piers Morgan.

  

Blue Sky Hostel (Glasgow)

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I chose Blue Sky on three consecutive weekends due to the weekend price hikes in Edinburgh. Plus I wanted to check out Glasgow. The dorm rates were a simple 10 euros (by the third visit the price had went up to 11 euros). I had no problem making a reservation over the telephone and its location is not so difficult to find from the Buchannon bus station although it would be a bit more helpful to list their proximity to the Mitchell Library. All in all it comprised about a good twenty minute walk.

The facilities are not bad. There is a community kitchen on the ground floor and free wi-fi downstairs -- if your laptop corresponds to a certain bandwidth or something. Mine didn't. The owner knew of this problem from previous American guests but nonetheless was inconsistent in fixing the set-up. That was just one thing that irked me about Blue Sky Hostel.

the owner is a skinny caricature of an '80s punk rocker with foul-mouth and smokes like a chimney! 

I found this place to be terribly familiar; as in informal and crass. Owned and operated by a Canadian (and his dear old mother) - it took me a while to understand why I found their accents so unnerving - the hostel is run more like his personal frat house or school project. A skinny caricature of an '80s punk rocker, the man is loud, foul-mouthed and rarely shuts the hell up; and smokes like a chimney! 

On one of the wall murals was the word "Nigga" distinctly written in marker...and, no, it was not in homage to my book. The owner's reaction was indifferent. "Oh," he shrugged, "these #%@! people write so much #%@! on my #%@! walls, man." Really? I didn't see Canada Sucks scribbled anywhere.

Oh? I should look behind me, eh!

 What's that you say, eh?

 Dontcha know, eh!

65 Berkeley Street
www.blueskyhostel.com
(Same owners of West End Backpackers Hostel on 3 Bank Street)

Doesn't sound Greek to me

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Why are white people always 'surprised' by accounts of racism? To read the news articles, you'd think these reporters lived under a rock. Or just try telling folks first-hand experiences: White peoples' eyes start out of their hands like it's the most incredible, fantastic Marco Polo story they ever heard in their lilly white lives. (Click pic to read more)

I told you Tapatios are racist

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I've written on here many times about the racism in Mexico. I've always said Mexicans are overly color-conscious and proudly ignorant. This cause célèbre of the "stolen" blond beggar girl is another case in point. 

After another batch of decapitated heads make the headlines next week this racist problem will be put back to sleep. 
And blondie along with other little children will be back begging on the streets.

The Fulano Files

Going my way?

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I've only tried it once before; and that was out of sheer desperation. In Mexico City, of all places! I gave it another shot the other day because, after all, I'm in Europe and the European take on it is very much different than in America. It's an accepted and commonplace practice. So when in Europe...hitch-hike.

If skuzzy-looking cannabis activists can get picked up, then surely I can

This time it wasn't desperation as much as economic experimentation: Try hitch-hiking, I convinced myself. Everyone else does and gets on just fine. I read about it on couchsurfing.com...I've met guys and girls who swear by it...so I finally said, Why not? Why exhaust my little funds paying for bus and train tickets and organized carpooling when I could have that much more money to spend on myself? Shoot, if skuzzy-looking cannabis activists can get picked up, then surely I can be trusted to be given a ride. How hard can this be!



I found the demarcated liftplaats in Amsterdam, held up my sign - BERLIN (with a a little bear drawn on for good measure) - and waited. Clean-cut, showered, and travelling light (I discarded and 'donated' nearly half my luggage to the hostel the previous night) I was hopeful and in place at 11am. Ten minutes later three white girls came by. Two were heading to Osnabruck and the one with the guitar, Berlin. Five minutes later three white girls, rucksacks, guitar and all were riding to Germany -- in the same vehicle. Oooooookay. After twenty-five minutes of nothing the hitch-hiking guide suggests one head to the nearby gas station around the bend, reasoning drivers would be easier to talk to and, thus, less resistant to picking up strangers. Another twenty some minutes dragged by. Nope, no luck there either. Running out of patience and time - I figured to use the remaining minutes on the 1hour metro card to get back to the hostel - I headed back to the liftplaats for one last try. There I saw an itty-bitty little two-seater giving a lift to a typical-looking backpacker and his typically overstuffed rucksack -- with the original passenger squeezing in the back to make room. And with that all optimism went with the wind.

Thankfully I managed to get a discounted bed in the hostel and comfortably regrouped for another day. To infer my skin color negatively effected my chances of scoring a lift may not be empirical data but, then again, I'm not an empirical scientist. I'm the oft overlooked traveller: a black man. Real world is my laboratory. And that's what this website is all about. 
Or As the old rhyme melodically chimes: If you're white, you're all right. If you're yellow, you're mellow. If you're red, go on ahead. If you're brown, stick around. If you're black, get back.  

PS: I didn't get a ride in Mexico City either.

Racist Greek airport security (Athens)

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So I'm going through the metal detector wearing no metal when the damn thing beeps anyway. This utterly defies the laws of physics and Reality but, then again, racism is far from scientific. Explanation: The pricks pushed the 'detected' button.
Reason: I'm black.


I get the full-body pat down, including two-finger swipe around the inside of my waistband. And although the X-ray machines were being used they did not work either because my carry-on luggage had everything removed from it. The racist Greek even looked through my set of photographs. All done in the name of flight security, of course.


Athens is a dump and the only thing(s) worth any interest are pressed into extra virgin oil or over 3000 years old.  

I feel very Black in Athens

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You really have to be a smug so-and-so to turn up your nose to customers in the midst of economic crises. Or just Greek. Maybe these austerity measures effect customer service as well--because nary a clerk or merchant afforded me a smile, hello, or "merry Christmas." 


On Saturday, Christmas Eve, I went to the flea market in Monastaraki. Ha. They have nothing on Berlin or Paris or south Chicago or Istanbul. Those cities know flea market. So, anyway, I'm browsing around the junk - "antique" - lots looking for something that might catch my eye. The only thing I catch, however, are suspicious eyes. These mofos watched me like a hawk. One racist jackass even closed up shop abruptly after I showed up!


I made up my mind then and there to NOT spend another euro in Greece that I didn't have to. I bought a fountain pen from a brown (translation: immigrant) merchant for 5 euros and went about my business. At the supermarket I finally had to call out one of these snooty Greeks. After noticing he was following me around the store I very calmly called his attention to the following:

Excuse me. If you don't want me to shop here I'll gladly take my money elsewhere. I'm not a thief and you've been following me around like I'm a criminal.

He claimed not to understand my English but I said, "Oh I think you do," and walked away. Suddenly he comprehended English very well and started on about having the right to follow anyone in his store. Then do it, I snapped."And don't just follow ME because I'm black. That's racism. And I know racial discrimination is against the law in Greece."


Greece deserves it's economic crisis. And I won't buy one crappy souvenir to help them out. And I thought Parisians were full of themselves!    

Can do without Athenians

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Athenians seem to have a bug up their butts. Maybe it's just the crappy rainy weather or their crappy politicians who have sunk them into a crappy economy and forced austerity measures but they don't at all give off a welcoming vibe. And I've noticed how the Greek people turn up their olive oil noses or scowl at the dark skin people around. Greeks are not the physically beautiful folks we were led to believe. Just another Greek myth, that. 
It may be more xenophobia than racism - yahoo! big difference! - but it ain't welcoming all the same.

I stayed in two hostels in Munich

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Btw I stayed in the following hostels in Munich:

Wombat City Hostel. After being harassed by the undercover pigs in the main train station I urgently tried to find some vacancy somewhere. Bought a crisp, crunchy apple pie at McDonald's to 'legitimately' use the free wi-fi  (because I couldn't get online at Burger King in the station) and made a list of nearby hostels. Quickly jotted down four, including this one.


Wombat IS super close to Munich Hbf - literally across the street - but it's poorly advertised. The outside banners don't do a good enough job of announcing Here we are! BUT there was one - one! - bed left and I was damn relieved to get it. Not bad for a near midnight walk-in. The reception was super chill and got me squared away right away. Guests receive a free beverage with check-in. I made it in just before the bar closed -- and did I ever need a drink! 

The dorm room was big and comfortable. Had a good night's sleep and checked-out the following morning whereby I walked two doors down to...

Euro Youth Hotel.  It was a very no-hassle check-in. A dorm bed was available, I paid cash, got my receipt and came back four hours later when the rooms were cleaned and ready - 2pm - (in the meantime I went back and chilled in a hammock in the Wombat's cool indoor garden lounge). 


This hotel/hostel has a nice old-school decor - wooden banisters and wood paneled walls - which I find charming and free of the 'fabricated' feel of some backpacker or economy hotels. There is free tea in the lounge. Wi-fi gets good reception...but phone calls don't.

When I returned later that evening and headed for the bar/lounge I was stopped by, "HEY WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?!" I didn't like this kind of reception from the Reception and wrote a letter to the management. Granted, there was an employee shift change and these guys didn't recognize me as a new guest but I felt the aggressiveness of their tone was 1) rude and 2) carried an undercurrent of my-kind-didn't-belong-there. The management emailed a sincere and prompt apology and promised to address the matter.  I appreciate that.  After the racial profiling at the main train station this whole thing of being a black American in Munich had well reached its limit. As a matter of principle I personally wouldn't elect to stay in Euro Youth Hotel again - because I wouldn't like to revisit Munich outside of business - but its facilities were fine, modern, and clean and affordable. 
     

Racism in Munich

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Last week while in Munich I experienced a stark deja vu: racism.


More accurately this was a repeat; for deja vu means to sense one has encountered  the thing before. I wasn't sensing a fuzzy memory of anything...I was targeted because of my black skin -- and I know very clearly what that feels like.


Just like two years ago I was hurrying through Munich Hbf (main train station) and just like two years ago I was racially profiled and 'casually' stopped by a pair of undercover pigs who, naturally, were looking for drugs. (Naturally all black men deal in drugs -- or are illegal Africans.) They called in my passport number. They left disappointed. Less than two minutes later - more like 35 seconds! - ANOTHER pair of undercover pigs stop me from moving from the spot I had yet from which to move. They, too, demanded to see my passport and one of them actually tried to argue it, the passport, was inadequate/insufficient identification. Supposedly these two Bavarian assholes were of a separate branch of law enforcement than the previous Bavarian assholes.

Apparently Munich is the only EU member with borders

Let me get this straight: multiple branches of police patrol Munich Hbf and they don't communicate with each other...they don't share information?
And, if that is true, it is not only pathetic and unorganized but also MORE racist because it means I was independently stopped and searched by, not one, but two police agencies in less than 90 seconds apart in a big bustling train station...where, yes, I was the only black as far as my eyes could detect. (And two years ago it was during uber crowded Oktoberfest! But, my, racist pigs do have eyes like eagles.) Loads of travellers and backpackers pass through this travel hub but so long as those travellers look Oriental or blond or white or, maybe even, downright African with the tribal robes and stuff it is not as suspicious as a lone black man in Western clothes. Apparently Munich is the only EU member with borders. That the exact same thing happened to me also means this was not racist individuals but, rather, racist police training: the pigs were doing as they were trained to do: seek out dark skin travellers. 


I was glad to leave Munich because you want to know something? Freedom is mobility.