Amanda Bate, founder of The Black Expat website
Amanda Bate, founder of The Black Expat website, has spent her life straddling the worlds of expats and Third Culture Kids. Ms. Bate, 36, was born in the U.S. to Cameroonian parents, grew up in Africa, and today lives in Richmond, VA, where she also runs an educational consulting business that specializes in college choice and adjustment for TCKs and global nomads.
The Black Expat, which launched in February, came out of a need for a larger perspective on the expat experience, she says. The site collects personal stories from black expats, whether it’s the reflections of a counselor at an international school in Guangzhou, China, or one man’s quest for a barber in Rome.
Ms. Bates talked with WSJ Expat about what it was like to go from a high school for missionary’s children in Cameroon to a huge U.S. public college, how hard it is to find stock photos connected to the black expat experience, and how the stories on the site bring out an emotional reaction in her. Edited remarks follow.
Where have you lived?
It’s a little bit crazy. I was born in D.C. because my parents moved to the U.S. in the mid-1970s from Cameroon. Most people know of the French part of Cameroon, but they came from the English-speaking minority part. When I was about 10, they decided they wanted to return, but this time we lived in the French majority area. We moved to the capitol city, Yaoundé, and my mom worked for the U.S. Embassy.
What was that like?
Well, for one thing, I have done every version of schooling that needs to happen. I graduated from Rain Forest International School, which was a missionary high school. Then I came back to the States, solo, at 17. My family was still abroad. And I went to the largest school in the state, North Carolina State.
How was it?
I had a really hard transition. I came from a graduating class of 15 and had an introductory nutrition class that had 350 students [at NC State]. My family was away and I was really struggling. I couldn’t get things straight. Many years later I was sitting around with friends and someone said they had a hard time coming back. We all looked at each other and said, “Why didn’t we talk about it?” That sort of stuck with me.
What was your next step?
I ended up working as the director of a college-access program, and I was working with first-generation kids, who were the first in their families to go to college. Both of my parents have master’s degrees, so I don’t come from that background, but that identity of going into a college culture they don’t know, and going back and forth between the two — I am like, “I get it.” Eventually I started working with families who have TCKs and I started my own educational consulting firm. I felt it was important to be a support for other kids who have come through. There is stuff you don’t know how to articulate and I had been through a similar experience.
Is this how The Black Expat started?
Yes, I was having these conversations and I noticed that the black Third Culture Kids were having particular conversations that weren’t happening with the rest of the group. So I started asking them, “What do you feel is not discussed?” And they told me things about hair, or about being the only black kid in Poland. At the same time, I was encouraging first-generation kids to study abroad, but they were saying to me, “Nobody in my family has gone anywhere. I don’t know people who do that.” I started thinking, what are the things I would want to know? I realized that there were so many vibrant stories that don’t get told. I asked myself, “What if we created a spot so that if it was the 1970s and my mom had had the Internet, she could find this spot?”
How would you say the experiences of black expats are different?
There are a lot of intersections at play. It all depends on where you’re coming from and where you’re going. One of the things that’s fascinating is black expats coming from predominantly black countries and going into western ones. One person told me, “I didn’t know I was black! We were always identified by tribes and communities.” So yes, I think it depends on where you’re going.
Anything else like that?
Another thing that has been common for some folks is being a black American and other people not believing you’re American, because they associate it with whiteness. One guy swore up and down that I was Colombian, despite my lack of Spanish! Another friend is Afro-Dominican and in many places she has to explain being a black Latina, which is its own situation.
You talk on the site about redefining the word “expat.” Can you explain?
When I thought about starting the site, I started asking a couple of different black folks who had global mobility as part of their lives. What’s intriguing to me is that many black folks didn’t realize the term [expat] applied to them. I met a man who was without a doubt both a TCK and expat, but he had associated it with the traditional idea of a glamorous job and being white, and he never saw it as a term applying to him. But I think all this term is talking about is mobility and migration, and there’s no color or class attached to it. We make these assumptions. But I wanted people to understand that these apply to them.
How has the site been received?
It’s been overwhelmingly positive. There are non-black folks who are reading it and can either relate or are learning something really new and powerful. For example, I have a friend from northern Michigan who is a middle school teacher in Alaska. He told me he is sending it to all of the school’s social studies teachers, because they have kids who are Asian, whose families are military, and who are Native American. I’ve also gotten great emails from folks who said, “You never know you needed something until you had it.” One person is sending it to peers going abroad. One is going into the Peace Corps and she said, “I need to be tethered.”
Any surprises?
Any time you take a racial angle, it can blow up in your face. I’m just really surprised at how graceful people have been. Another thing is that I’m not a crier, but I didn’t realize how emotional it was that people trust us with some of their most emotional stories. They’re putting their names on it and they haven’t even told these stories to their peers. When we say to them “go deeper,” and they really go deeper. I’m surprised at how emotionally invested I’ve gotten. I want to do their stories justice and I want to provide a safe place. I’ve been very fortunate to have people who have just given us a piece of themselves.
What have been some of the most popular posts?
“The Third Culture Kid Article I Wish I Had Read” went up on Tuesday. And in 24 hours it smashed all our numbers. Another one on passport privilege was popular. People said, “That’s my story and I couldn’t tell anyone.” Other people said, “I didn’t know what people went through.” Another one was by a woman who went from being a nanny to working for the Saudi royals in Riyadh.
What’s next?
Here’s something no one ever thinks about: It is incredibly difficult to find a black person’s photo when it comes to stock photos, travel, and expatriation. Finding a lot of photos that don’t come from the expats themselves really takes half my time. So I need to hire a couple of photographers. It’s something you don’t think about until you’re looking for it.
