Just completed the tour on Saturday, July 27th, 10:30am to 12:30pm slot. This was my first visit to Austin so I thought a Saturday morning tour would give me a lay of the land and get my weekend off to a great start. I was treating myself to a getaway “me-time” retreat before the school year starts for my daughter next week.
The tour is okay, basically a leisurely van ride through the main drags and attractions of Austin, including the Capital building, University of Texas campus, Zilker Park, the “04” neighborhood, South Congress Avenue and a few of the well-known murals of Austin. Our tour guide, Brent, was friendly, knowledgeable and witty.
The van was very small with group of about 11 people. There was a family group of 5 visiting from Virginia, a group of 3 women on a reunion trip, and a married couple.
Brent asked us to introduce ourselves at the start of the tour and all seemed well at the beginning. I was traveling solo, so I sat shotgun which was fun. Unfortunately for me, as the only African-American on the tour, I had to be subjected to one of the passenger’s off-handed, racially biased and stereotypical comments which just nearly ruined my experience. Here I am, a 40-something, Ivy League educated physician of over 20 years and she starts calling me “girl” and shouted “You go girl!” and similar derogatory and diminishing comments when we stopped to take pictures and such. I was taken aback, and completely disgusted to be in the position of having to defend myself when I just wanted to have a good time like everyone else. It seems to me too, that the other members of the group were uncomfortable with her behavior but everyone stayed silent. Sigh...
I took the high road of course, smiled and ignored her egregious behavior. I was not going to allow her to steal my joy in that moment.
But I would caution my fellow African-Americans/people of color about this tour. It’s a very small group, you’re stuck in a small tight van for 2 hours with strangers and in this racially charged climate in our country today, beware of the blatant attacks/abuse you may experience. It’s sad.
I would book a private tour with a group of friends or family or maybe do the hop on/hop off open air bus just to get a feel of the city.