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Being a Black Man Abroad Can Get You Killed
The death of Bakari Henderson in Greece has me rethinking posing for selfies with White strangers in foreign cities.
Yesterday I had another “That could have been me” moment, the kind I have every time I read or hear yet another story about yet another Black person who has been killed because of their race. My latest moment came about while I was reading about the retrial of the men responsible for the 2017 killing of Bakari Henderson, a Black American tourist in Greece. As usual, it was accompanied by an all-too-familiar feeling, a mix of rage and relief.
Like many Black Americans, I had the moment and the feeling after Ahmaud Arbery was slaughtered in February of 2020. I had the moment and the feeling after George Floyd was murdered the following May. I had the moment and the feeling after Daunte Wright was gunned down in April of 2021.
I had the moment and the feeling in July of 2013 when George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Trayvon Martin. At the time, I was in Berlin, half a world away and halfway through my 13-year expat stint, and the memories of all the racist encounters I’d had over the years as a Black man in the United States came flooding back.
