Every day behind the wheel of his Uber, Nelson navigates more than just city streets of Washington D.C. A Cameroonian engineer and devoted father of five daughters, Nelson drives around different types of people everyday. Naturally, Nelson has crazy stories of his adventures in the Uber, and unique experiences as a Black Immigrant in the U.S.
Nelson has been an Uber driver since 2018. He enjoys Uber because he can choose his hours and can save a little extra money to focus on his engineering business. He met his wife, Barry, in college in his home country of Cameroon back in the early 2000s. Although they didn’t date in college, they reunited while working at a bank together.
After getting married in 2004, Nelson and Barry decided to move to the U.S. to raise their family.
“It was more about opportunity for my kids,” Nelson said. “I didn’t know how the future would look like, but probably at the time the decision was made, America sounded like a better place for opportunities.”
Nelson is a family man. He has five girls of all ages: 17, 15, 13, 11 and five. Since moving to the U.S., there has never been a quiet day in his house, but he loves it because his girls bring joy to his life.
“They have their own personality, and of course I have unique relationships with each of them. I love my girls. They’ve been the world to me.” said Nelson
As an Uber driver for more than seven years, Nelson emphasized the negative parts of driving Uber. “I’ve met all kinds of people, like racist people.” Nelson said.
Being a Black immigrant, Nelson experiences subtle racism all the time. Since he is driving people around, there is a sense of superiority for those paying for the ride.
“People think they’re better than me because they pay me $6 for a ride,” Nelson said. “It’s subtle racism, but not really direct. It’s kind of like people who will pretty much classify you just because you’re driving Uber.”
When moving to the U.S, Nelson had a significant culture shock.
“It’s only in America that I realized I had a skin color,” Nelson said. “Where I come from […] nobody really cares about skin color.”
After living in America for some time, Nelson began to appreciate the diversity of the country.
“You can have that Sudanese friend or that Papua New Guinea friend or that Chinese friend or that Brazilian friend, and you get to eat different dishes, enjoy different cultures,” Nelson said. “Whereas we are more like the same people in Cameroon. Don’t get me wrong, there are slightly different cultures, but from a global perspective, they are similar.
Nelson says this was a positive culture shock that he loved to see. His vision of living here was met in an unexpected way, where he could make friends from different cultures. However, Nelson was also shocked by the community in America.
“When moving to America, my expectations, as in life itself, it’s not nearly what I thought it could be,” Nelson said. “People in this society are very individualistic, unlike where I come from, where everybody thinks about everybody.
“I miss the community asking for love and empathy,” Nelson said. “Empathy is missing. The government has put in place structures to ensure that everybody can come together, pay taxes, we get light, we get electricity, we get water, we get roads. But in terms of really living as a community, if I have a pain, can my neighbor really be there for me? I don’t think so.”
After living in the U.S. for 18 years, Nelson described how much his perception of different cultures has changed.
“You cannot live somewhere without it changing the way you think and the way you do things,” Nelson said. “That’s what culture does to us. You listen to politics, you listen to people, you find things different. But things that were once normal to you become abnormal..”
As an Immigrant Uber Driver, Nelson’s experiences sheds a light on racial bias in America. Coming from Cameroon, Nelson can critique American society looking in. His emphasis on the “lack of empathy” in America suggests for people to treat each other better, and love thy neighbor.
By Sabine Crawford
