Revisiting the “Fairyland”: Exploring Expatriate Black American Experience in Europe

• In Event: Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table Five: Racial Experiences and Perspectives of Black People and African Americans

Abstract

In Revisiting the “Fairyland”: Exploring Expatriate Black American Experience in Europe, I explore whether Black Americans living in Europe in the 21st century find the same freedom their predecessors enjoyed in the 20th century. In the 20th century, prominent Black Americans moved to Europe to escape harsh systemic and everyday racism in the United States. During Baker’s landmark speech at the March on Washington in 1963, she stated that living in France was a “fairyland” for her. However, approximately 50 years later, Oprah Winfrey, one of the world’s richest women, was denied service in a handbag shop in Zurich. This incident prompted many Black columnists to dispute the notion that racial discrimination had ended—even after achieving the desired “class status”—and to dismantle the “Fairyland” myth, in which Europe was seen as a place where Black Americans could escape racial discrimination.
While there has been an abundance of scholarship comparing race relations in Europe and the United States, very few studies have examined the attitudes of Black Americans who have lived on both continents and compared them with archival data from Black Americans who lived in Europe in the past century. I explore the intersectionality of race, class, education, and status to compare and contrast the past with the present. In 2020, we observed not only how the Black Lives Matter movement affected American politics but also how it influenced European politics. Black artists and scholars have stated that their European experiences influenced ideas about liberation in the United States. Using qualitative data, this research explores how this reciprocal relationship continues and how it has changed over the last century. Given the continued rise of anti-Blackness in both places, this study examines whether Europe can still offer a joyful homeplace.

Author

• Vanessa Theresa Stout, California State University-Los Angeles