I’m writing this because I often read reviews from black folx saying CDMX is this amazing place. But the reviews generally are about touristy locations where there are typically lots of international people and English speakers. Rarely do I see reviews on people doing things besides going to monuments and museums. What about when you need to go grocery shopping, run errands or grab supplies for a day trip to a nearby locale? It’s true there are a lot of great museums and monuments to see. You could spend an entire day at the Anthropology Museum and still not get it all in. There is also lots of great architecture and food. But if you’re black and the kind of traveler that likes to engage with locals, practice native language and get away from tourists to feel the culture of the place you are in you might find Mexico City unfriendly. I am black/mixed born in the early 1980s, and I have traveled to more homogeneous locales in the world so kinda used to curiosity stares. But people in CDMX would (literally) stop and stare in a super unfriendly, mistrustful way. This didn’t shift if I smiled at people or greeted them in Spanish with a friendly salutation. I also found myself being searched in retail spaces where others were not and generally just feeling unsafe walking in places that weren’t littered with tourists. Honestly, I was really excited about visiting Mexico City for the first time but after about 5 days I decided I needed to have a little breather from the city and its hatefulness. So decided to try an Airbnb experience hiking a volcano a couple of hours away. It was led by some very sweet mountaineers from CDMX. Along the hike some other travels from Europe asked how I was faring. I told them pretty candidly how happy I was to be on the hike outside of the city and why. The local mountaineer over heard and responded, "In Mexico City? It's probably because you look like bad people that have been coming to Mexico City. Lots of Cubans are coming to Mexico. They are very bad people, so people probably think you're Cuban and become suspicious." *This mountaineer was really kind and telling me this without the slightest idea that he was saying anything racist :/ I should also mention that I did a lot of exploring by myself but I also did some exploring with my European husband. He too, noticed the intense attention I was getting. But it was amplified when I was alone. I have traveled to other parts of Mexico and did not feel the intense hatred of Mexico City. But racism seems to be pretty normal in Mexico so… One last thing I’ll add is I was doubting myself thinking, “Maybe I’m being overly sensitive or bringing US politics to international travel,” but after reporting my racist treatment in CDMX to a friend of Mexican ancestry he recommended a short film “JAMAICA & TAMARINDO: AFRO TRADITION IN THE HEART OF MEXICO.” It’s available Kanopy. I highly recommend. I wish I would have watched it before my trip so I wasn’t so blindsided.