Black Like Me

From The New York Times -

Joy of a Black Planet

In 2011, Zim Ugochukwu was traveling on the Jagriti Yatra, a 15-day train trip through India for aspiring entrepreneurs. Her time in India wound up sparking an idea for a start-up, though perhaps not in the way the trip’s organizers intended. Ugochukwu was struck by the fact that, out of a group of about 500, she was one of just three African-Americans. She thought about how mainstream travel publications, even those online, weren’t speaking to them or their experiences. ‘‘When I searched ‘black travel’ on Google, I saw a black suitcase,’’ she said. ‘‘That’s not what I meant.’’

In September 2013, Ugochukwu created Travel Noire, a resource for black globe-trotters, continuing in a long online tradition of pulling together otherwise diffuse groups of like-minded people: tattoo artists on Pinterest, gamers on Reddit, and so on. In keeping with the times, Travel Noire is more of a brand than a publication, taking on many incarnations: a website, a vivid Instagram account and private forums. ‘‘I wanted to create a place for people to dream about a destination and read about how another person did it,’’ Ugochukwu said.

What she understood was that black travelers had to be able to picture themselves in entirely new territory, beyond the comfort of a cruise or weekend trip to Miami. Ugochukwu tapped into her generation’s most popular mood board (and envy-stoking machine), Instagram, flooding it with images of young, hip, black travelers hiking in Thailand, sky-diving in the United Kingdom and rafting in China, images perfectly crafted to provoke wanderlust. In July, Ugochukwu plans to introduce group packages called Travel Noire Experiences that include locales with black histories, like the Afro-Brazilian communities of Bahia or a tour of black-owned wineries in South Africa.

There is also a more somber, practical purpose to the site. Some Travel Noire readers may also use the site to avoid potentially unfriendly destinations. Much of Travel Noire’s approach, however, involves debunking the notion that certain places might be unwelcoming. Take, for example, Greece, which has a reputation for discrimination and harassment against dark-skinned people. But when one of Ugochukwu’s writers visited the country, she ended up having an amazing time.

‘‘That really changed the narrative,’’ Ugochukwu said, ‘‘just by showcasing it for our audience.’’