A Black helping hand: Collecting the narratives of Black American voluntourists in Trou Baguette, Haiti

Ulmer, Tayler

2010-2019

Volunteer tourism is marketed to be a mutually beneficial program where volunteers are said to gain personal development and contribute to developing communities (Raymond and Hall 2008). While white women are the predominant volunteering group, black Americans have a presence within this field. Black American volunteers are having racial encounters in their host community that juxtapose their skin color to their privilege as volunteers. Drawing upon the scholarly literature on transnational blackness, master status (Hughes 1945), migrant identity, and privilege, this project examines the experiences of black American volunteer tourists and how they negotiate their nationality and identity in their host communities. Using a sample of convenience of students who have participated in Morehouse College's Alternative Spring Break Program to Haiti, this project explores their experiences in Haiti and the ways that they engaged their privilege and racial identity. The black American voluntourists find similarities through shared oppressions and histories with the Haitians that they encounter. However, the voluntourists remain aware of their Americaness and it becomes the most important aspect of their identity while in Haiti. Furthermore, the voluntourists engage privilege as Americansa new phenomenon for the students that represent a historically disenfranchised community.

text

application/pdf

Ethel Waddell Githii Honors Program Theses

thesis

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Spelman College

White, Darryl

Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
Spelman College

Georgia--Atlanta

2015-05-04

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12322/ewg.honors:2015_ulmer_tayler

All works in this collection either are protected by copyright or are the property of the Robert W. Woodruff Library, and/or the copyright holder as appropriate. To order a reproduction or to inquire about permission to publish, please contact the Archives Research Center at: archives@auctr.edu with the web URL or handle identification number.

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/