Black, Gay and Visiting Barcelona

So I thought that I'd take a minute to discuss the topic of the title of this post for anyone out there reading this that might be black and considering visiting Barcelona. I wholly recommend it, however I want to take a minute to give you my perspective. Am I an expert on the topic? No. My total of 6 weeks in this city, between my 2 visits here, hardly qualify me as an expert. But nonetheless, I am an expert of my own opinion.

First, there are very few black people here. I'm not sure what the census says, but I'm guessing somewhere around 5% give or take, which is far less than the 20% (even higher in cities) that we have in the states. Secondly, the black people that are here are almost exclusively African immigrants. For cultural reasons, almost none of the African immigrants are openly gay. So the thriving gay scene is almost completely composed of whites or latinos.

This doesn't bother me and never has as I feel equally comfortable in a room full or whites, asians, latinos or blacks. Furthermore, if you haven't figured it out by now, a guy that's willing to walk through downtown city streets isn't bowed by standing out a little. In fact, perhaps I relish it.

I will say this though, I have never had a problem meeting people in this city (caveat: speaking Spanish doesn't hurt in this area). I realize that I'm somewhat of a rarity in this city and surely that attracts people, but such things don't even slightly bother me.

I guess what I'm saying is if you can walk into a bar full of people of a different race and feel comfortable, and you stand a little scrutiny because you stand out like a sore thumb then perhaps you'll love Barcelona just as much as I do.