Do Black writers get stuck in a race rut?
Georgina Lawton tells us how she branched out beyond writing about her race
During the pandemic and in the wake of the BLM movement, the travel media did some self-reckoning. Conversations around race and representation abounded, and with a new-found awareness of the issues in some cases, some well-meaning editors commissioned several think pieces on the experiences of travellers of colour, written by writers of colour. Today, we continue to see articles on these topics, which can only be a good thing, but some writers have felt they have become pigeonholed into writing solely about their lived experiences as a person of colour, instead of as a human being or more generally as a traveller.
On our Diversifying Media Press Trip with Intrepid last year, I (Lottie) had a conversation about this with Georgina Lawton, a freelance travel writer, author of Raceless and Black Girls Take World, and the founder of Take World writing retreats. And so, here she is exploring her own journey from writing about race to writing more generally within the travel sphere, with some advice for other travel writers in the same boat.
For me, travel writing has been both political and personal. When I first started out in travel writing, I was in my mid-twenties and was financing a year-long trip around the world by freelancing. I started in Colombia and later, made my way through Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Vietnam, pitching as I went and writing for an online women’s website. My writing, and a now-defunct travel blog (that I very much wish I kept up!) got the attention of a publisher who asked me to write Black Girls Take World, a travel guide and essay collection aimed at inspiring black women to travel solo, which came out in 2021.
I situated my book and my travel journalism in the stories of others, and now I run writing retreats for women of colour in Lisbon. For centuries, the movement of black bodies has been strictly controlled: during the colonial expansion, black people were stolen from Africa and shipped around the globe for the economic advancement of European nations. Black bodies have been used as a tool for capitalist production and so access to leisure travel was denied.
In my twenties, I was happy to write personal pieces about my identity and my travels. I’d seen how the Black Travel movement began as social media-led conversation focused on greater visibility for black adventurers who don’t fit the traditional mould, and I’d happily added my voice to the media landscape. I was proud of my book and my articles on blending in while travelling a black-majority country, how to deal with grief on the road and what it was like planning trips around DNA test results. I also expanded on these ideas in Opinion pieces in a weekly column for the Guardian.
But after a few years, I wanted to branch out. I wanted to be able to write about food, and adventure travel and light-hearted topics that weren’t tied to my own experiences. So I simply started pitching the stuff I was interested in. This meant turning down opportunities about my identity, which was hard at first as I worried that was all editors knew me for. But I followed up with some editors I’d enjoyed working with and found that if we had a good relationship, they were willing to work with me on other pieces.
There were also some editors who blanked me when I changed tack. But I realised that the publications that wanted to rely on click-baiting personal pieces were no longer the type of places I wanted to write for. It was hard at first, but I kept knocking on doors until I was commissioned for the types of pieces I wanted to write, like exploring the Amazon rainforest by motor yacht, or experiencing Michelin fine-dining in Portugal.
I think it’s incredibly important that writers of colour get the opportunity to cover what we want and I’m against anything that limits our creative expression. I believe that writers of colour should be able to write about their communities, and topics that interest them without being made to feel like they should cover less diverse stories. But on the other hand, representation for black and brown writers within the travel media is often through a race-discussion lens which is limiting. It's not every day we want to be commissioned to explore racism on the road. We need more of us writing travel columns, first-person food diaries or pithy packing tips. Travel journalism is meant to show the expansiveness of the world around us, and when we all view the world through one singular lens, via one type of traveller, then we all end up with one singular representation of the world, which is so incredibly dull.
If you’re a writer who's starting out and who is worried about being boxed into one particular topic, I’d encourage you to push back. You don’t have to accept that pitch, or write that story if you don't want to. On the other hand if you feel like you have a valuable story to tell about your identity or your culture, then tell it. There’s not enough of us contributing our voices to this landscape in general, so don’t let anyone make you think that your voice isn’t valid either way. Just remember it’s your career, and you’re in control of the direction it heads.
This was the third in our free series on race and travel writing. If you’ve found this series enlightening, support our newsletter by subscribing today for just £7 a month. Paid subscribers get access to our entire archive of editor interviews, tips and insights, as well as weekly newsletters that promise to help your career grow.
Don’t forget to check out the back catalogue of Travel Writing Webinars by Meera Dattani for extra tips about pitching, networking, and writing award-worthy features.
 | A guest post by
|