I think colonialism and tourism tie together. In many countries’ pasts, the demographic of the colonists who invaded it was white. In tourism, what I have experienced is that many white Americans keep their sense of entitlement when visiting countries. Often, they have the white savior complex as if they doing the country justice by their mere presence. Here, ties the superiority complex. While at the airport, I realized this while going through TSA.
Even on our tours like the night tour in which saw the stars, I saw white tourists sit down on Mayan ruins. This action conveyed the said entitlement and affirmed my thoughts. That tour was magnificent. I love astronomy and constellations. I could not imagine how the Mayans discovered it. I would have to have been there to understand thought processes and their course of action to come to that conclusion. It would have been extremely fascinating.
Also, the hacienda was a bit disturbing. Understanding the history of it made me uncomfortable after learning about the dark past. It showed me we weren’t any different from the tourists we discussed about. Even though we are learning, it doesn’t take away the past of what happened.
I also loved the Florida Project documentary. I believe race does play a factor. In our class discussions where many individuals said it wasn’t about race when it was. I feel like white individuals should not be able to speak up if race is a factor when they have never been marginalized due to race. As someone who is a person of color, I feel like my experience differs from a lot of my white peers. The one scene where Halley beat up Ashley. After their fight, there is a scene where Halley observes Ashley walk to work amid a storm. The symbolism of Halley staring down from the third floor (where she lives) and Ashley going down the stairs (who lives on the second floor) is that even though they are impoverished, Halley is one step above Ashley. This alludes to race. Also, if the roles were reversed, and Ashley was the aggressor. The storyline and fate of Ashley would have been completely different.
