I think I understand your points but I would rather let socioeconomic conditions account for the shortcomings of black people rather than any innate qualities.
I'm not thinking so much emotionally as I am skeptically. I'm black myself and I know sure as hell I wouldn't want to spend any time in Antarctica at all for the obvious reason that it's below zero. I have seen many blogs of white people doing crazy things. Specifically, one blog of a white couple who traveled around the world in a motorcycle. Saved up, quit their job, and decided to do the damn thing. Another, a white guy who decided to throw away seven years of college in industrial design and engineering in order to move to Indonesia. The guy spent a couple years teaching himself photography and he is a professional photographer now. He also married an Indonesian lady and now has two kids. I have many other examples in your favor, but I feel the categories you have set to measure geographical curiosity are too narrow.
White men sail balloons around the world because they have money. Poor whites almost never fly balloons. I guarantee you most if not all the people in Antarctica have a damn good college education, something that seems to escape a lot of blacks due to economic disadvantage. The white people I mentioned above are all financially stable. The white guy and girlfriend who took the trip around the world were promised that their jobs would still be open when they got back. The white guy with the Indonesian wife makes much much more than the average Indonesian.
Now on to black people.
I guess I'll start with myself. I'm a black guy living the U.S right now in boring white suburbia. Looking at my bookshelf right now, I'll list out some books I have
Archeology of Knowledge by Michel Foucault
Patton: A Genius For War by Carlo D'Este
A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume
The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze
Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Ake by Wole Sonyinka
Against the Day Thomas Pynchon
I currently have a collection of about 500 books mainly philosophical, classic, modernist, and postmodernist literature. Percentage of black people like me? Well below 1%. The main difference? It can't be money. Books are pretty cheap on half.com. What are my goals? I plan on working here for ten-fifteen years. Invest, blah blah, move to rural China and become a philanthropist in education and health care. Now would you know I was black if I hadn't told you? I'm using myself as an example because I don't fit with the typical conception of a black person at all.
African Americans make up 13% of the the U.S. population. Let's take a look at what Wikipedia says.
[quote]Economically, blacks have benefited from the advances made during the Civil Rights era. The racial disparity in poverty rates has narrowed. The black middle class has grown substantially. In 2000, 47% of African Americans owned their homes. The poverty rate among African Americans has dropped from 26.5% in 1998 to 24.7% in 2004.[13]
However, African Americans are still underrepresented in government and employment. In 1999, the median income of African American families was $33,255 compared to $53,356 of Whites. In times of economic hardship for the nation, African-Americans suffer disproportionately from job loss and underemployment, with the black underclass being hardest hit. The phrase "last hired and first fired" is reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment figures. Nationwide, the September 2004 unemployment rate for blacks was 10.3%, while their white counterparts were unemployed at the rate of 4.7%.[/quote]
Sound particularly optimistic? No. If African Americans are earning significantly less than whites, do you expect them to do all those fancy things you mentioned? Let alone have the money to fly to China and start a business. I realize a number of African immigrants look down on African Americans because African American culture doesn't emphasize education as much as African, Arab or Asian cultures. But no one ever stops to consider the roots of this culture are rooted deep in slave culture and structural racism. Why do so many people expect such a drastic change from a Civil Rights Era that lasted little more than ten years? It's been 40 years and racism still exists. Yes, Harvard and many other preppy colleges accept black people at a higher rate than white people, but everyone forgets than before college comes high school, middle school, intermediate school etc., Looking at the socioeconomic conditions, something definitely went wrong in precollege education. I'm not going to go into detail but there is some problem that is hindering blacks from going up higher in the social ladder, an event that would consequently expand their geographical curiosity.
So my conclusion is blacks are only as geographically curious as their bank account.
Yes, there are black people in Asia, but due to financial constraints on the race, not many exist. Also due to financial constraints, poverty is most likely what they experience like in Vietnam:
http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/? ... wsid=25510
This is an article about the way many black people live in Vietnam.
The black immigrants in Europe don't have it any easier. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is far from the norm.
In response to your questions, yes white people are more likely to do all those things but it's because they have more money and they've had the money for so damn long (centuries) they started coming up with new ways to spend it. Motorcycling around the world is one of them. Not many Asians, mestizos, or blacks travel around the world in motorcycles. This is strictly a money issue not a race issue.
A lower socioeconomic status lowers your ability to accomplish those things. It's unfair to blame black people for their lower socioeconomic status. It's almost as inane as blaming someone for being alive.
So... I'm sure there are many blacks who would [i]want[/i] to motorcycle around the world. But they don't have the money to do so.