Between 2017 and 2019 I have visited 23 countries. I turned 18 in 2017 and am now 21. I understand that while I am very privileged to have been able to visit almost two dozen nations and found more positive than negative in the experience I also know there is still a lot of negative.

For starters I am a white guy who is partially middle eastern. You could say I am mixed because I look both but I am 5th generation everything so I don’t speak any of my ethnic backgrounds. Myself I have not experienced any racism but can’t even count how many times people ask my ethnicity or just assume. I don’t think this is racism, but can be annoying when people make it the biggest deal.

When I visited Dublin, Ireland I stayed with a host off of a couch surfing website. Before going to London he had explained to me that “London is more dangerous than Dublin and has more black people”.

In South Korea there was a guy I went on a date with. When I asked if he visited Japan ever (since I just came from there) and liked Japan or Japanese people he told me that Koreans hate Japanese because of past conflicts.

I remember having a Jordanian man and Indonesian woman ask me if I like black people while traveling as well. When I said yes, the immediately said “I don’t really like them”.

A drunk German who was hitting on me told me he didn’t like Arabs and Turks in his country also. I also remember an Italian man who I was speaking to in French told me he didn’t as well.

What I’m getting at is you can really find racism everywhere and you can’t hide from it. It’s sad but I think a accepting it will always be present in the world is the most logical.