When Tasieka Brewer stayed at her grandmother’s house in the ’80s, she heard her phone call. In the evenings, Corinne Brewer was on her phone making plans for her trip, booking dinners for her shows, tours, flights, and accommodations for a group of nearby women.
“She was actually a stay-at-home mom and decided she wanted to travel,” Brewer said of her grandmother. who lives in New Jersey. “She realized that many women were professionals and housewives who wanted to travel.”
For most women, Brewer’s grandmother was turning dreams into reality.
“At the time, travel lacked diversity,” says Brewer, a freelance publicist. From New Jersey, I said. “There were women of color who were hesitant to travel to certain places because they didn’t see anyone like them traveling.”
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Brewer recognized that the woman was likely to have safety concerns about traveling to places with few like-minded people and a history of racial tensions. .
Her grandmother’s travel group became known as the Club Femme, and together they went on beach and ski trips to Hawaii and the Caribbean. Club Femme was often the only tour for people of color. Her grandmother often went the extra mile to enhance her clubbing trips. She contacted tourism boards, subscribed to various magazines, and pulled clips of activities travelers might want.
Following in his grandmother’s footsteps, Brewer fell in love with travel while studying in Paris. She organized her own travel group. pink girls run the world In 2016, after a friend asked for help in planning a trip to Dubai, Brewer’s group not only empowered a more diverse traveler, but also made people of color more accessible around the world. I try to connect it to culture and experience.
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“I started this movement because I wanted to create a more inclusive narrative about travel, connecting real-life stories that all women could really relate to,” said Brewer.
Bring diversity to your travels
Pink Girls Run the World has grown to about 50 women in total who take part in Brewer-organized trips to places like Morocco, South Africa and soon Zanzibar. Twice a year she takes about 25 people on trips of about 6-10 days. The group is open to anyone, but currently the Pink Girls are all black women between her 30s and her 52s. Brewer creates a space for the Pink Girls to truly present themselves in a travel industry lacking diversity.
“Some people get disappointed when they don’t meet people. Without a representative on the trip, some may avoid destinations on the grounds that they may not be safe, or feel the need to make a certain impression in order to feel safe and comfortable.
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Brewer isn’t alone in feeling that travel needs more inclusivity. There are spaces such as fat girls travel, Motiliand and black kids do travelwhich represents different types of travelers and aims to create safe spaces for all types of people to explore and enjoy their destinations.
In the United States, more than two-thirds white tour guide, the valuable voice is lost from the conversation. Brewer knows what the consequences are. On her trip to Charleston, where her plantation learned the history of American slavery, she felt that her own hotel and the tours she took “deaf her.”
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“Especially now in 2022, I think we need to change some of the language about these tours by delving deeper into the experiences of enslaved people, not just the luxury of plantation owners,” she said. said.
Through Pink Girls Run the World, Brewer taps into what she calls an “overlooked” market.
Blacks spent more than $109.4 billion on leisure travel in 2019, accounting for more than 13% of the U.S. leisure travel market. Half of U.S.-based black travelers Respondents say they are likely to visit the destination If the ad contains representations of black people.
Brewer not only organizes trips for the Pink Girls, but also offers travel coaching. Brewer will help you overcome the fears and hurdles of traveling to a new place and help you with details like creating itineraries and planning your budget.
Why is it important to keep an open mind while traveling?
Brewer likes to keep an open mind when traveling, especially when it comes to meeting other people. When she was in Italy with the Pink Girls, she said people were pointing at them and commenting on the color of her skin.She didn’t respond, but she kept the incident cool. I accepted it. While she was on a trip to a Greek village with the women of her family, like her mother and her grandmother, people asked how they were related. He was more than happy to answer any questions.
She said these examples are more rare. “For the most part people are welcoming,” she said. “I think what makes us different is curiosity.”
She sees these encounters as educational opportunities. Meeting people who are interested in her on her travels is a chance to learn about their customs and culture and to share her own. “That’s one of the things I love about traveling.”
Kathleen Wong is a Hawaii-based travel reporter. You can reach her at kwong@usatoday.com.