One of the guiltiest pleasures I gave up when I decided to live my life out of a suitcase was watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians. (And my brain could not be more thankful for this lifestyle change.) It’s a peak into a group of talent-less celebrities’ day-to-day, and though its entire viewership would likely deny their love affair with the show, it’s pretty irresistible. Everyone has wondered what it would be like to be famous before – is all that attention nice? Or would it make you go insane? What does it feel like to be admired and envied by everyone around you? It’s why we can’t help but scan tabloid headlines while in line at the grocery store or follow Twitter fights between popstars (hopefully that’s not just me..).
But now, after having traveled through more of the developing world than most Americans, I can say with confidence that I know what it feels like.
Because I’m white and own an American passport.
-Wherever you go, you feel like you’re in a parade.
-The paparazzi is everywhere.
-It would be rude to ignore or pass on the requests of your fans. The desire for selfies with you is truly limitless.
-Everyone wants to know about your personal life. Especially your love life.
-It’s difficult to know who your real friends are - or if people just see you as someone cool they can say they spent time with or because they view you as a walking ATM.
-People do everything for you like you’re royalty.
-People love you even though you don’t deserve it – I AM the Kim Kardashian of teachers: admired by all, yet truly under-qualified.
-Everyone wants to be you. They want to be where you’re from. They want your white skin. They want your eye color and nose shape.
-They’ll probably always remember their interaction with you, but you might not with them.
If you resist the special treatment, you look rude, ungrateful, or like you’re too good for what they’re offering. But you don’t even know how much of the special treatment is simply because you’re a guest, or if it’s more because of your idolized identity.
Yet, if you go along with it and accept the special treatment, you are complacent with the current power structure, enabling their white worshiping, and reinforcing their inferiority complex. So what are white foreigners supposed to do in these situations??
The only answer I’ve come up with thus far is to give them genuine compliments about their unique personality, beauty, culture, and way of life. There is always plenty to praise. And to shower them with acts of kindness in return. (Though this does not mean buying them things.)
I’ve also become more comfortable denying picture-taking – especially with men. Let me be clear, we are equally guilty of objectifying people in the developing world, particularly tourists who take pictures of locals without asking for permission first. You would never just take a picture of a child running around in Germany – that would be creepy! – but somehow many of us don’t see the problem with snapping a pic of a child in Myanmar or Tanzania without their or their parents’ consent. For me, I am not a tourist attraction, I am not famous, and I don’t know you, so why did your phone camera just flash in my direction as I was walking down the street? I don’t know what you are going to do with my picture, so I would just prefer you don’t have it. Back in Indonesia, my Western friends and I used to joke that if we charged even just 2,000 Rupiah ($0.15) per picture, we could fund our entire trip. To me though, the endless photo shoots would not be worth it.
Despite having a sick fascination with their show, I have concluded from my time abroad that I would never want to be a Kardashian! I hope in this next year I can do my very best to blend in in my host community – though I am fully aware that I will never truly be seen as one of them. I hope my presence in Prek Keo gradually becomes normalized though, and the novelty of an American teacher at the school eventually wares off. My wish for these next few months is that I soon become a “has been” celebrity – though not a one hit wonder!
