The difference between a student and a tourist is one I am trying to construct for myself when I thinking about the global system I am apart of in Vietnam. During my time in the Mekong Delta, it was easy for me to feel like a tourist. I was living in a beautiful homestay, being fed amazing food constantly and relaxing in a hammock during my off time. I felt carefree rather than my normal state of manageable stress and a backpack full of books. It was easy to forget that I should be thinking critically about the social and political structures of the island. How much is the person serving me my lunch making per hour? What are the main exports and imports and agricultural capital of the island? How is the tourism and economy of the island being affect by 20 Western students interacting with the space? As I eat elaborately planned meals and exotic juices I think about the fact the person serving me is making half a dollar. I’m here to learn, advance my art career, and find adventure yet I find myself losing the fact that I’m involved in a system. We are all apart of a local and global system. The local aspect of my visit to the island is good for the local economy but what happens when tourism becomes the major source of capital for a community? I think back to a video I watched about how tourism as a major income affected Jamaica. The locals could only find sustainable jobs serving Westerners and basing their lives in the hotel, restaurant and bar industries in the tourist locations. This ruined the authentic cultural productions and infrastructures of the Jamaican economy and the national pride for the people. Does my being a student eradicate the shame of being apart of this culture? The influx of tourism inspired a valuing of European ideals and standards for the people and destruction to the natural environment. White skin, blue eyes and blond hair became objects of success and produced a rise in skin lightening creams, hair relaxers and Western clothing brands for the Jamaican population. I wonder if these issues of national identity and pride plague the people I interacted with on the island. In a way, I’m consciously close my eyes to the poverty when I take a selfie with the local children or throw peace signs to the locals. This was most prevalent to me when I was talking with two local children of island during the mid autumn festival. The only words in English they knew were “hello, how are you? I’m fine!” But are they? They were able to afford to go to school so that places them at a advantage compared to a lot of other children their age in the country. The structures of struggle these children face are foreign to my privileges as a middle class American, Sure, these kids are 10x more likely to never see the privileges I take for granted; $60,000 private school, the power to choose what I want to do with my life, typing this very message on my Macbook but then am I only valuing success through American ideals? As I say no to the lady selling me peanuts on the street, or close my eyes to the poverty and listen to my iPod, am I still apart of the global system? When I take a selfie with the children to post on Facebook, am I perpetuating the westerner stereotype of ignoring the poverty and problems that plague this child? Tourism versus student means I should be thinking critically about these things while I drink my green tea milk shake. As a black woman is America I am naturally inclined to see myself from a status of separation from the guilt my existence causes and my role in the global economy. I have never struggled with this concept of guilt nor have I seen myself from the top looking down at the unbalanced system lying before me. One day, I will work in a nice air-conditioned office and talk about my experience abroad in job interviews and not think about the life the child in my selfie is living at the same moment. Morality becomes a clay to mold I have to sculpt for myself when it comes to these types of issues. I think to think of myself as a agent of change to these classist, racist and hegemonic structures and the first step is to consciously understand and construct the meaning behind my actions and decisions for myself. The tour guide said the Mekong Delta was brown like the skin of the people, which is why I wasn’t suppose to notice the skin lighting creams in all of the bathrooms. Local versus global means seeing the issues before my eyes as issues affecting the world as a whole. With tourism as a main source of capital, european values as supreme and poverty systems de-empowering the individual, my exotic juice taste a lot more bitter.