‘Is Texas racist?’ Answer found around the world

“Is Texas racist?”

Considering all the trouble in the rest of the world, this is the last thing I expected to hear while visiting South Africa last month. The other tourist wanted to hear what a Texan who was wearing a University of Texas at Austin T-shirt had to say about what is happening on our border. The irony wasn’t lost on me. This is the same South Africa where apartheid had been a way of life up through the 20th century.

The same South Africa where Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned on Robben Island.

The same South Africa that builds houses for the unemployed.

South Africans are zealously recapturing their heritage, giving African names to African places, streets and buildings.

I’m fascinated by history. Unlike Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was denied a visa to visit South Africa, I made it there, and I wanted to learn more about the history of the country, which includes apartheid.

After visiting 58 countries on six continents, the biggest education I’ve received is about my own country. I’ve heard the questions and learned what other people think of America.

I’ve learned that colonialism’s reach across the globe extended farther than I’d imagined, and that the fight for recognition and equality is universal.

Acknowledging the truth in the question “Is Texas racist?” made me consider the quiet part many ignore.

There is a prevailing attitude that Europe is the place to visit. But my recent trips reveal that European travel presents a false narrative perpetuated by Angloconformist attitudes that marginalize learning about the world.

Call it a form of continued colonialism in which people ignore a holistic way of seeing the rest of the world — particularly the parts unlike their own they don’t like.

In South Africa, my University of Texas T-shirt opened the door for a British tourist to ask her question. She wanted to know how the people in the so-called land of the free really thought, especially from someone who looks like me.

I love my country like anyone who loves their home, even though we don’t always get it right. When we fail to ask the right questions, we fail. When we choose to avoid honestly answering questions, we fail.

I didn’t mince words. My blunt answer to the fellow tourist to correct the false narrative? No.

I told her I’m ashamed for allowing myself to become invisible, giving a false narrative oxygen by not speaking out. I told her I’m aware of Britain’s immigration issues. She nodded. We all have work to do. Perhaps you would have answered the question differently.

Texas isn’t any different from any other place I’ve visited. There are decent, caring individuals who seek to make the world better. That truth starts at home. But racism? It is everywhere people allow it to be.