My time in Belgrade came to an end approximately four weeks ago, however because I was so focused on being present in every new experience that I was having, I forgot to keep up to date with my blog post. No worries, my memory may be weak but there are some events and moments that have stuck with me! One such moment is when I first arrived at the Belgrade Airport.
The first thing I did when I got off the plane and made my way towards passport control was look around me. Not so much to take in my surroundings (I told myself that I would have more than enough time to do that later), but to see if there were others that looked like me. I had been told at the orientation for this program, that POCs (persons of color) were a rather small minority in Belgrade and that the likelihood of seeing someone that looked like me would be small and limited. So, I had mentally prepared myself for this. Essentially, I had expected to go through this airport as the only black person in the vicinity and this would serve as the beginning of a two month long experience of inadvertently standing out.
A view of the Kalemegdan fortress from the outside. Taken on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon walk.
Yet, in spite of my mental preparation to often be the only one that looked like myself in the two countries I would be spending my time in this summer, I could not stop myself from looking around me. My four years spent at a primarily white suburban high school where I was often the only one of my race in a vast majority of my classes did not seem to be enough preparation for the summer I was embarking on. And so here I was, less than 30 minutes into being in this new country, hopelessly looking around the airport to see someone else with my shade of skin. When I did finally spot someone, they were were a part of a family that was in line at passport control waiting like I was to enter the country. Upon encountering this family at the airport of my strange new surroundings, I gave a sigh of relief and took small comfort in knowing that I was not going to be the only one. So, even though those that looked like me would be a very small minority here in Belgrade, they at least existed in this space. This for me in a lot of ways validated my ability to exist here.
A black and white image of one of the gates within the Kalemegdan fortress.
For the remainder of my first week in Belgrade, I spent a decent amount of time looking around me to see if I could spot more people that looked like me. Eventually, I started to play a little game where I would count the number of black people that I came across in my time in Belgrade. And while this number was small, a total of 18 by the end of my four weeks here, the worry and fear of being alone stopped gnawing at me. There was even a point when I forgot that I was looking around for others like me and only upon spotting someone do I smile to myself, take a small breathe and feel reassurance that it is ok for me to be here and that I should not be scared of being a very visible “other” within my surroundings.
An image of the Victor Monument at Kalemegdan taken from below. The monument was built to commemorate Serbia’s victory over the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires during the Balkan wars and the First World War.