To all those people claiming the author must be getting stared at because she’s beautiful, don’t you think she’d know if that was the case? A beautiful woman will get stared at everywhere. She’s talking specifically about stares from fellow westerners when she’s travelling which make her uncomfortable. Many white people come from places where there are few black people but that’s no excuse. It reminds me of my grandmother who used to poke my mother in the ribs whenever she saw a black person and say loudly “s/he’s a darkie.”