Reykjavík Grapevine - jan 2019, Qupperneq 16

16 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01— 2019
Jewells Chambers is originally from
Brooklyn, moved to Iceland in 2016,
and has been very busy since then. She
manages the website From Foreign
To Familiar and runs the All Things
Iceland podcast, and a YouTube
video she published with friend Tabi-
tha Laker last September, “Living in
Iceland as a Black Person - Our Personal
Experiences," has really been getting
attention. Much of what they said reso-
nated with people, both in Iceland and
abroad, and it turns out there’s a lot
that led up to the video’s creation.
Not a monolith
To be clear, Black people in Iceland, as
anywhere else, are not a monolithic
entity. They can hail from many differ-
ent countries, classes and cultural
backgrounds. At the same time,
Jewells discovered that there are some
commonalities of experience.
"Everyone's experience is so differ-
ent, but there are things a lot of people
who reached out to
me said they relate
to,” Jewells tells us.
“Like when you see
another person of
colour in Iceland,
you get so excited
because you know
that there aren't
very many of you.
Then there's the
questions from
white Icelanders
about your hair,
which I think is
really fascinating,
although I think
that gears more
towards the female experience. And
then there's run-ins with comments
that people will make."
While Jewells says she has encoun-
tered ignorance in Iceland, as opposed
to racism, not everyone has been that
lucky. "When you experience this, you
go through this thing where you're
trying to fit in in a new country, so you
try and brush it off and think of the
positive things you're grateful for. Still,
sometimes people will deliberately say
things to try and hit you where they
believe it will hurt the most."
Dealing with it
"When people have asked me how
I'm getting along in Iceland, I try and
bring in something about my experi-
ence as a person of colour, because
that's a big part of my identity” Jewells
says. “When I'm walking down the
street, I want to be considered a regu-
lar person like everyone else, but the
stares are real, and sometimes they're
much more prolonged than I think is
OK. They might stare a little bit longer
because they're curious and they don't
realise what they're doing, and it feels
strange because you're usually not
getting a smile."
Jewells says she prefers to deal with
the ignorance she has encountered on
a case by case basis. Sometimes this
means trying to diffuse the situation
with a joke, or confronting the igno-
rance directly. Either way, an internal
struggle can often emerge.
"That's the hardest part, because
sometimes people who are victims of
ignorance or racism assume it's their
fault, because you're the one who's
different,” she says. “You're part of the
minority. So sometimes just my exist-
ence feels like I'm doing something
wrong because people are so unaware
of what it's like to just exist as this
person."
Sharing the experience
The inspiration behind the YouTube
video arose from Jewells wanting to
read about the Black experience in
Iceland, but finding the available mate-
rial utterly lacking.
While her friend
Tabitha has been
doing her own
videos, she encour-
aged Jewells to do
a col laborative
work, and so they
set about doing
a v i d e o w h i c h
would cover “the
main things that
could be particular
points that Icelan-
dic people have no
idea affect people
of colour here."
And this is just the
tip of the iceberg—she plans on cover-
ing the Black male experience, and the
refugee experience, too.
The reactions have been overwhelm-
ingly positive, due in part to the general
racist awfulness going on in the US,
which the rest of the world has been
painfully aware of.
"I think that the US in particular is
going through some really ridiculous
stuff right now,” Jewells tells us. “Espe-
cially if you're Other—whether you're
Mexican, or in the LGBT community, or
Black—there are so many people whose
existence is being threatened and their
rights are being impugned upon, and
Icelanders are seeing so much of this
that they were more receptive of the
video, so it actually ended up being a
good time to put it out there."
Be aware
In terms of what white Icelanders
should be most of aware of when it
comes to their interactions with people
of colour, Jewells advises being sensitive
and putting yourself in other people’s
shoes.
"I'd say the thing that immediately
comes to mind is the staring part,” she
says. “I think if you're going to look at
somebody, if you at least give them a
smile, it immediately deactivates that
sense of fight or flight. Be aware of
yourself or how you might come across
to the person you're looking at who does
look Other. Because in their mind, they
are always aware that they're the other
person, because you're surrounded by
people who don't look anything like
you. Be sensitive to the fact that when
we talk about being a person of colour,
being Black, this is meaningful for us
because there are so few of us in places
like this. This has more to do with
building a community and feeling like
you can share experiences with other
people."
Being Black In Iceland
Brooklyn-born creative powerhouse goes viral
Words:
Andie Fontaine
Photo:
Jewells
Chambers
Jewells Chambers, being characteristically brave and adventurous.
“In their mind,
they are always
aware that they're
the other person,
because you're
surrounded by
people who don't
look anything like
you.”
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