If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve seen in the news worldwide protests against the killing of black people in the United States, following the death of George Floyd. While it all started to denounce police brutality, the movement became a symbol for black and brown people all over the world to condemn racism, raise awareness on white privilege and expose white supremacy.

The whole BLM movement grew worldwide because the black community is present everywhere and is discriminated against everywhere. Remember that we are in Africa too and BLM applies for Africans too. Now I have seen little reaction from black people in Africa. So I’d like to write for them as the proud African that I am.

The story you are about to read touched me to the core. I spent weeks talking about it to my friends and families as I was shocked to see how an entire system can discriminate against people and justify it so simply.

I was exposed to collective racism while traveling

In summer 2019, I planned a 10 days trip to Benin to visit my mother and get to know my home country a little better. I booked a flight from Paris to Casablanca (Morocco) and a second from Casablanca to Cotonou (Benin).

On departure day, my flight, operated by the Royal Air Maroc airline was several hours late, and we ended up landing in Casablanca very late. Great, I missed my correspondence to Cotonou. As the passengers of other late flights approached the airline agents, we were told the next flights to African destinations would be available in two days.

Where are we going to sleep? They better pay for my hotel room and serve me food, because I am losing 2 days of my trip.

My immediate angry thoughts.

” The agent made it clear we had to wait 2 full days as there are very few available flights per day, to African destinations from Casablanca. But they assured us that we would be well taken care of. And that’s when the trouble of traveling as a black African began.

They asked EU passports holders to follow an agent that would lead them to their hotel rooms. At the time, I had gone to the toilets and came back to hear people’s angry voices. Non EU passport holders were asked to take a shuttle bus that would lead them to a “lounge” where they would sleep. A lounge, not a hotel.

As an EU citizen, I felt guilty of the privilege of having a French passport, but outraged to see that these African people, who were on African soil and traveling to Africa, didn’t have the same right to sleep at a hotel. As a black woman, I felt pain and anger from witnessing that people who looked like me, weren’t being treated fairly. I decided to muster all my courage and ditch the hotel room to support my African people. I was not going to keep quiet about this, and even tweeted the airline to ask for an explanation.

We took the shuttle bus and what we saw when we entered the “lounge” was a large room with chairs and hard couches. This is where we were all supposed to stay, for 2 days straight. This is where black families, babies, children and old people had to sleep. I think I had never lost my shit that hard before. It was a fucking shock.

@RAM_Maroc puis au lieu de loger tout le monde dans un hôtel vous osez leur proposer une salle de transit ou des familles doivent dormir sur des chaises et canapés. Sans parler de la ségrégation des passeports : seuls les européens peuvent dormir à l’hôtel?

— CallMeJaneBond (@invinciblejane) June 22, 2019

When we asked officers for an explanation, they replied that EU citizens were allowed to a hotel outside the airport because they don’t require a visa to enter the Moroccan soil, unlike these African travelers. He then checked my passport and told me the good news: I could join my European fellas at the hotel. All I remember to what followed up, was me and other passengers protesting against this passport discrimination and asking for fair treatment. When we collectively refused to sleep there, they took us back to the airport and assured we would be taken to a much nicer place. Which means they had the choice, but still chose to take us there.

The airport agent told the families to go through the airport authorities to get to the “nicer” place they could sleep at. And when they tried, they were escorted back inside the airport as the authorities refused for them to enter Moroccan territory. Looking back, I think the airline agents wanted to teach them a lesson or scare them by sending them to the authorities on purpose. That worked well, everyone came back to the airport and some of them even slept on the cold airport floors and chairs while keeping their luggage in check.

This is what systemic racism does to black Africans

This entire story isn’t an isolated case. The same exact thing happened to the state secretary of Liberia with the same airline.

This whole thing happened because Africans without a visa cannot enter Morocco. This is racism because even if the law prevents these people from leaving the airport, it’s the airline that decided to treat them differently from their European and American counterparts when they didn’t let them sleep at a hotel inside the airport. Passport privilege is real.

Besides, looking at the below map, very little African countries can enter the Moroccan territory without a visa, unlike most western countries. The vast remaining majority just cannot. I know that a visa-free Africa is still a work in progress to help Africans travel the continent, but even in that case, we cannot punish people for having the “wrong” passport. Isn’t this an example of systemic racism?

I can already hear people say “it’s not discrimination, the airline is just applying Morocco’s political travel agreements with other countries.” But the agreement does not go both ways: Moroccan passports cannot visit the US, France or China without a visa.

It’s not racism because it’s based on people’s passports, not their race. Then why is Morocco making it so hard for other Africans to enter their country without a visa? Why is Morocco allowing most of the rest of the world, but not countries on its own continent? Why does Morocco have even more specific travel restrictions (electronic travel authorization) for some African countries? Because their nationality (passport) echoes with their race. It’s the only plausible explanation. Africans are unwanted. Despite being known for being an inclusive society, Morocco still faces a lot of cases of discrimination against black migrants.

“It’s not discrimination or racism, it’s all for economic purposes.” So African countries can’t bring wealth to Morocco? Having western countries pay for their visa would be much more lucrative than Africans.

Additionally, when comparing Morocco to its neighbor Algeria, the visa policy is completely different. Algeria allows very few African countries, but I don’t consider this a prejudice, because it doesn’t allow most countries of the world to enter their territory visa-free. The same way, only 9 countries can enter Egypt without a visa.

I am sick of the existing hypocrisy around race issues. Africa has a negative image and by extension, so do African workers, refugees, travelers, etc. They are viewed as poor, savage and powerless people. These stereotypes don’t help Africans who are facing discriminations like the one you just read. Royal Air Maroc knows that most Africans won’t sue or attack them and won’t be backed up by their country. They are taking advantage of that and must be held accountable.

Racism in all its forms must be exposed

Back to the story I was telling you, it ended when I got lucky enough to get a morning flight back to Paris and then to Cotonou, thanks to two Beninese black travelers who pressured the airline staff. Again, this shows they had the power to get us a flight but chose not to. Unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to the families that I left. All I could do before leaving is show them how to get reimbursement for their tickets, given the long flight delays.

All these travelers did was pay for their flights. Why did they have to be discriminated against, when they had nothing to do with the flight delays? Instead of recognizing their fault and fixing the issue, Royal Air Maroc rejected all accusations of discriminations. All I could do was expose them on while it was happening, and on social media. But these things should go further. I know it now. Needless to say I will boycott that airline forever.

Being a witness of such shameful behavior was very hard for me to process. Recognizing my passport privilege was easy, and I am glad I stood up against discrimination although it was not directly targeting me. And while I am calling out Royal Air Maroc, I cannot label Morocco as a racist country. However, what I’ve seen so far, (including airport staff behavior) doesn’t encourage me to go.

We need to recognize, call out and condemn systemic discrimination and racism EVERY TIME we see it. Hopefully, this story will help you realize that racism exists in all forms, including passport privilege. I hope we all get to educate ourselves on these issues and gain the courage to fight against injustice. We are going through important times. We cannot fail at choosing the right side of history. Black Lives Matter, all around the world.

Have you ever witnessed discrimination or racism? How did you deal with it?

The Author / L'Auteure

Jane

I’m a twenty-something french-african digital marketer passionate with travel, video games, technology. I write about my experience as a woman, as a black woman, as a woman at work, as a black woman at work, as a black woman who travels… Well, I think you get it, and I hope you can relate to my stories because I write to empower and inspire other women to share theirs.

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