It was a combination of appearance and language … if I didn’t look the part and I didn’t speak the part, I was more than likely down upon, especially if I were alone. Speaking English didn’t seem to help because English is such a common language now that most immigrants everywhere tend to know a little or a lot of English because knowing this one universal language greatly increases your chances of getting anywhere. I met lots of legal and illegal African immigrants in the south of Spain over the years and the common thing with many of them was that they all knew a good level of English to get by.

Just being brown in Europe automatically lumps you into being a foreign immigrant of some sort I find … to most people, if you are brown, and you are not obviously African, then you must either be Middle Eastern, Latino or Asian, all of which means you are probably a new, recent or first or second generation immigrant. And depending on which location you are in … the local people may or may not enjoy seeing foreign immigrants around.

I found Italian cities especially difficult … partly because they have a big problem with legal and illegal immigration and partly because they are all sick and tired of being a tourist park for the world. Spain was the same way but not as bad.

As far as nationality and saying I was Canadian … about half the people I told that to actually believed me. Most people laugh at the idea and others just dismiss it because there are not many brown skinned, long haired Indigenous people from Canada running around. Most people just assume I’m Latino, Filipino or some Asian who happens to come from Canada … maybe.