We were friends. Nothing more. Just two kids from Jersey traveling abroad who happened to bump into each other by stereotypical mistake. His White European friends dared him to go and talk to that Black Brazilian girl sitting on the beach, who was really a Black American girl in disguise. After listening to his tired pick up line in American-accented Portuguese, I cut him off and bluntly asked him in English where he was from. But he was persistent and followed up by Skyping me that evening again extending his invitation.

But her question made me stop and think. But Pari, 22, who was born in London to Indian parents, does. And so do millions of other womxn of colour. But not all womxn experience sex with white people in the same way. Guys actually had requested I shave, asked about the colour of my areolas or my labia, and some had fetishised my latinx-ness. Things changed when she had her first white boyfriend.

Latrese Williams is one such black traveler. When Ms. Williams goes out in Chicago or pretty much anywhere else in the United States, she said, she often feels ignored by men who seem to barely register her existence. These polar reactions occur, she said, because she is black. Williams said in her home in the Monti neighborhood of Rome.

Since America's founding, the nation's racism has made interracial relationships incredibly hard—even life-threatening. It was only 50 years ago that interracial marriage between black and whites was even made legal, which happened in my parent's lifetime! And there are still maniacs running around today who will kill you for dating outside your race.