Don't Bring Home a White Boy

An increasing number of black American women are traveling and living abroad, acquiring a new perspective on what it means to be black and a woman.

In her book “Don’t Bring Home a White Boy,” author Karyn Langhorne Folan, a Harvard-educated attorney, explores notions that keep black women from dating outside their race.

I picked up this book after learning about the chapter on travel. Like many of the women in her book, I’ve found that the issues I’ve faced in the United States disappeared when I traveled abroad. In a previous post, I articulated how it felt to be “harassed” as a woman traveling in Latin America.

Ms. Langhorne Folan, who is happily married to a white man, says dating is the “same story around the world.”

Highlights:

** Outside the U.S., black American women are seen as Americans first, then as women, then black.

** In Europe, black women are seen as high achievers. Think Condi Rise and Michelle Obama.

** Europe is a “haven” for interracial dating, say many black women interviewed in the book.

** Travel is one of the most important things black women can do for themselves; it boosts self-esteem.

** From what some of us spend on shoes, we could be seeing the world.


Do you date while traveling? Cross-culturally? Interracially? Would you?