Last night I decide to cruise through the Red Light District here in Amsterdam and check it out.  For those of you that don’t know, prositution is legal in Amsterdam and there is an area where women advertise themselves in these windows lit by a red light.  So I’m walking and I’m noticing something.  Some of the girls are beckoning me to come to them while some as they see me just look away or turn around completely.  This made me wonder and I, being the curious person I am, decide to investigate.  I decide to approach one that won’t even look at me.  I go up to the window of this really attractive, tall, young, blonde and she just starts shaking her head as to say no and waves me away with her hand.  WOW.  I then decide to ask one of the other girls what’s going on.   I go up to the window of one that seems more welcoming and ask her why the other girl down there rejected me.  She tells me that alot of the girls won’t take black men.  She says that there have been some problems in the past with black men being too aggressive with them or not wanting to pay.  At this point I’m thinking “hmmm, so u mean to tell me that there haven’t been any incidents with white men doing the same thing?  Not even, one?.”  I really find that hard to believe as I believe that there are aggressive, abusive, and cheap men amongst all ethnicities.  Why is it that black men are automatically attached these stigmas when one of us do these things?

As I’m walking back to my hotel room there are a lot things going through my mind.  Why is it in a city that seems to be very ethnic-friendly as there are tons of different nationalities here that there is still this racism?  It’s shameful that some people still pass judgement on entire races simply because of the actions of a few.  I’ve had problems with people of all different races but I don’t have this mentality about a particular race.  Even when I was in Egypt, where I was harassed by many Egyptians, I never passed judgement on the whole of the people.  I understand that people have their preference and women are free to chose who they want but why discriminate on the basis of skin color?  Why is my characther pre-judged because of the color of my skin?  I’m a good guy who has never abused a woman in any way, whether it be physically or emotionally.  I believe that women are precious and should be treated with respect and love.  Maybe if any one of these girls sat down and had a conversation with me they would see that.  But on the same token maybe all they have to go on are appearances and past history.  Anyway, I could write a book on this subject and probably will if I don’t stop now.  I just wanted to shed light to this subject because there is nowhere else on the internet that is discussing this, which is also a shame in my opinion.  But, then again, that is what this site is all about.  I’m here to shed light on subjects that other travel blogs tend to shy away from.  I’m here to report on a REAL travel experience, not just one with the usual tourist highlights.

Sound familiar?  Check out my other post HERE