No one I asked, not even other New Jersey residents, seemed to really know what Irvington, N.J., was all about. The only thing everyone agreed on was that there were signs for Irvington on the highway and that it was in Essex County.

Now, as I move through the town, I see no evidence of the acute poverty, crime and industrial decay that. . . .

With African-Americans hitting the road more and spending more on their vacations, the travel industry has been gearing up to cater more to Blacks and their travel needs. African-American travel volume jumped 4 percent from 2000 to 2002, higher than the 2 percent increase for travelers overall during the same time period, according to the Minority Report conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America. “These growth rates show. . .

In October 2003 I set off on a yearlong adventure, trading an autumnal London for, first, Australia via Singapore. You know you’re a foreigner when you’re walking down a street behind an old woman wearing a lamp shade and pushing a wheelbarrow twice her size and yet everyone is staring at you. I spent three months following the backpacker’s trail up the east coast of Australia, and the only time I saw Aborigines. . .