I sing in the choir at a baptist church in Harlem. When I stand in the choir loft on Sundays, I see hundreds of beautiful, mostly black faces smiling up at me from the pews.
When I look up in the balcony, I see another two hundred or so beautiful, mostly black faces.
Also in the balcony are always 50 or more beautiful, non-black faces. These faces typically belong to European tourists from France, Spain, and Italy.
Just a couple weeks ago, on Easter Sunday, Harlem’s Black baptist churches (including the one that I attend) were a top European tourist attraction. I have always assumed that most churches happily welcome tourists, but I heard through the grapevine that at least one major church was turning them away on Easter. Perhaps it was because Easter is a Christian high holiday if you will, and the church wanted to reserve its limited seating for its members. Or, perhaps, that church decided to take a stance against a practice that many folks think is intrusive and inappropriate.
Tourists in Harlem are nothing new (neither are tourists at Harlem churches).
Yet I have often heard folks complain that being a black person in Harlem when there’s a busload of European tourists walking around (with their sensible shoes, cargo pants, cameras, sunglasses dangling from a string around their neck and fleece athletic jackets as they stroll down Convent Avenue in ooh-and-aah wonderment) feels like being one of the wildlife that people want to see and touch up-close at the zoo.
I hear that. Treating black people like animals isn’t cool, obviously.
But there’s so many other things going on, too.
For instance, do we only get that animals-at-the-zoo feeling because the busloads of tourists are white? If the busloads of tourists were black folks (from a European country or elsewhere), would we feel the same way? Or maybe we believe that busloads of black tourists wouldn’t dare visit Harlem because it’s our assumption that black people around the world have the good sense and decency not to treat other black people like museum artifacts?
Are we mostly offended by the size of the tourist groups? Is it only annoying and rude because there are, indeed, a busload with as many as 100 tourists walking together in a pack, sticking out like sore thumbs?
Is it because the tourists people-watch in Harlem but they don’t actually open their purse strings in Harlem (with the exception, of course, of paying the tour operator who may or may not be Harlem-based)?
Folks in Harlem have the right to enjoy their neighborhood and worship services without worrying that a group of foreigners may be viewing them as some sort of spectacle. I understand why churches welcome European tourists, yet keep them as a contained presence in the sanctuary. At my church, the tourists are relegated to the back rows of the balcony, as some like to leave before service has come to a close.
When I occasionally visit other major black churches in Harlem, I typically see a tourist line wrapped around the block. It’s usually called a visitors’ line, but either way, I always bypass it. I know that line isn’t for me. Yes, I’m a visitor, but I’m black, and the people in the line are almost always all white. So I stroll right up to the church’s front doors, say good morning to the greeter and sit my a** right up in the worship service. I can do all this because I look like I could be any ol’ member of the congregation.
I don’t know if my friend Jared could do the same. He’s a member of my church and he likes visiting other churches as well. But he’s white. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone stopped him at the door and told him to stand in the visitors’ line.
Traditionally, I always thought that places of worship should welcome anyone at any time. But I don’t know anyone who goes to church wanting to be the subject of “gawking at negroes” time. Still, there’s always nuance and complexity in a matter.
I wonder: Is the zoo/”gawking at negroes” thing really what’s going on when European tourists want a glimpse into a cultural ritual like the black baptist worship experience? (And do we run the risk of similarly offending people when we tour their monuments and communities as we travel abroad?) Or are tourists truly there to worship with the rest of us?
