A Southern Professor Razes Hiking and Fishing’s Racist White Dominance – Opinion

If you aren’t white, you may not be able to go way outside.

This appears to at least be the conviction of North Carolina State University Professor.

KangJae “Jerry” Lee — of the school’s College of Natural Resources — recognizes the racism keeping you from enjoying the great outdoors.

Cultural differences, he asserts, can’t explain why there aren’t more black people fishing, hunting, and hiking.

Another reason is income inequality.

The instructor laments America’s adventure/nature gap, but he’s bulls-eyed the culprit: systemic racism.

Wichita’s KAKE recently jawed it up with Jerry on the lack of outdoor equity.

Per the ABC affiliate’s article, “the lack of diversity in outdoor recreation has become a hot topic in the White-dominated space.”

Indeed:

The United States has long been a country where Whiteness and outdoor recreation go hand-in-hand.

Although national parks don’t record the races of visitors, census statistics — the write-up reports — “don’t exactly paint the most inclusive picture.

White Americans far outnumber those of color when it comes to outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing and wildlife observation, according to Census Bureau data for 2016. Numerous studies have also shown that White Americans are more likely than White Americans to enjoy outdoor recreation and public parks.

If you’re ready to review the reason, Jerry suggests starting with systemic racism:

“If we start connecting the dots, the issue becomes excruciatingly clear that historical institutional racism has banished people of color from the great outdoors.”

So how did, in the words of KAKE, the “outdoors became racialized”?

As with all compelling stories, there is romance.

Lee explained to CNN that the respect for nature today was not present in America when Pilgrims arrived. He said that the wilderness was considered dangerous and needed to be managed to ensure survival.

This changed however in 1800s when white urbanites began to love nature as a nurturing environment. Think Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau – both of whom were writers at that time.

Lee says that this romance brought on racialization.

Jerry asserts some folks have considered cities…to be dirty:

“(Some White elites saw) the urban environment as dirty, unhealthy, filled with lots of immigrants and people of color, whereas green spaces were clean, quiet and for White people.”

Cities are usually clean, which is a good thing (Language Warning).

Sometimes, urban areas even host naturism.

Woman Runs Naked Down Streets of Downtown LA – With a Dead Rat in Her Mouth https://t.co/zu0I0VI2A0

— RedState (@RedState) March 19, 2020

Back to the professor, the myth of unclean cities — AKA “the environmental movement” — was closely tied to eugenicism.

About early conservationists

“They had no interest in serving people of color. Some of them even viewed parks and outdoor recreation as a tool for maintaining White supremacy, and believed White Americans could cultivate tough and boisterous characteristics in the outdoor environment.”

Fast-forward to the ’50s:

In 1952, while there were 180 state parks in nine southern states available to White people, there were only 12 for Black people, according to Lee’s research.

It’s easy to imagine Jim Crow laws shamefully keeping black Americans out of parks. But what’s happened since desegregation?

Trends nowadays — of lower participation by people of color in outdoor recreation — reflect much of this prior racist history.

Jerry’s got it pegged:

“An important question we need to ask in this argument is why are Black and Hispanic people experiencing higher poverty rates, if money is such an important aspect? The answer is racism.”

There are so many options.

All of these people have been called bigots in the last year:

Also, there are many problems that the country needs to address.

What is stopping non-whites from enjoying outdoor sports?

[C]onversations about who gets to enjoy and have access to the outdoors remain top of mind as a number of people call for dismantling settler colonialist and racial capitalist ties outdoor recreation and the industries associated with it have maintained by erasing contributions of Indigenous people and people of color,” KAKE relays.

Jerry’s got some great ideas

He told CNN he’d like to see more changes from the top, both by hiring more people of color in positions of power and by highlighting contributions made by people of color in cultivating the great outdoors.

A minority of adventurers agree:

Eddie Taylor, a Full Circle Everest Expedition climber, will be the first Black team to reach Mount Everest 2022. Representation is something the team talks about frequently, Taylor told CNN, as most people both in the US and in Nepal don’t necessarily associate Black people with climbing Everest.

As for “people of color in cultivating the great outdoors,” KAKE points to just such a thing:

Many people…may not know the role of Charles Young and the Buffalo Soldiers, who did significant work in maintaining national parks, and Black members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, who built and renovated many state and national parks at a time when they weren’t legally allowed to visit them.

Jerry hopes that word of mouth will spread.

“Unfortunately these histories are largely neglected, so highlighting this history by people of color, I think it’s extremely important. I think that will be an effective way to dispel common misconceptions.”

Let hope be your beacon.

At least one college tried to keep the flame alive in the interim:

Ivy League School offers rock climbing classes for all students, except white students
https://t.co/KnUY7rgXOg

— RedState (@RedState) February 28, 2021

-ALEX

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