I suppose, I never travelled and I have never had much faith in my fellow man. The stories about people who died in south america and had families extorted to get the body or stories of public figures being conned in bars buying drinks for women. I've read a rumor that Billy Blanks was confronted with that scam, somewhere in asia after saying he wouldn't pay hundreds for a drink, he paid according to the rumor. Malcolm X's grandson sounded like a victim in a similar scam, bought some Mexican girl a drink, refused to pay and got killed.
I've heard other stories about black people in china, being laughed at by kids and touched to see if the color is real but that's a lesser level of what I'm actually wondering about. i have an old trainer who does business in Asia and china particularly, he's a white guy and I wonder just how much shit he's got to put up with if any. he is an mma trainer who is a honcho in a fighting org but people seeing him on the street aren't going to know that. My old Muay Thai trainer once told me that he was in abu dhabi, training someone in the royal family, he was outside and took his shirt off in public and police charged at him and grilled him, he just said, "it's hot". His pals quelled the issue but those kinds of things can easily occur when people don't know the customs of where they are.
Yeah you have to research the local customs, like not showing your feet in Thailand, or not holding your wife's hand in rural north Africa, nudity can be a real issue in places and all the rules can be more difficult for women often. Usually I learn a bit of the language before hand, just a handful of words and that goes a long long way.
Don't carry a bunch of money, have some back up money hidden. Don't keep going back to the same place if it's a bit wild a moving target is hard to hit. Know the prices of things, pay up front. Read the room. Wearing clothes that have the odd hole in doesn't hurt in some places.
I've never bought drinks for anyone and I stay away from tourist places. I've heard of people getting scammed too, but I don't go to those places where they're looking for those marks, I'm interested in the country, rather than fancy spots or strip joints etc.
I've been robbed in France, narrowly missed a terrorist attack in Tunisia and was tailed by secret police, had some sketchy moments in South Africa, some guys there just looked at me with hatred cos I was white and had a rental car I reckon, but that was in a very poor township and the history of whites there ain't great. They were kinda right in that I'm married to a woman from one of the awful white families there, but she ain't got nothing to do with them and is a saint.
I can't speak to the race thing, I'm big and white and that made me a celebrity in a lot of places I've gone in Asia and Africa, been followed by gangs of kids etc. The English get a little respect in some Asian countries because of the Victorian era it feels like.
Nowadays just ask Grok AI and it will tell you what is and isn't a good idea. I've found it amazing as of late.
