Prof Claims White Dominance of Outdoor Recreation Has ‘Roots in Systemic Racism’
“The issue becomes excruciatingly clear that historical institutional racism has banished people of color from the great outdoors.”
Do you ever wonder if campus leftists just sit around trying to think of new things to accuse of racism?
The College Fix reports:
Prof: Outdoor recreation a ‘white-dominated space,’ has ‘roots in systemic racism’
A North Carolina State University professor says diversity has become “a hot topic in the White-dominated space” of outdoor recreation as there exists an “adventure/nature gap.”
KangJae “Jerry” Lee, of NC State’s College of Natural Resources who has a PhD in Park and Tourism Sciences, says the dearth of black Americans in activities such as hiking, fishing and hunting can’t be explained away by cultural differences or income level.
“Systemic racism” is the culprit.
According to KAKE.com, Lee said “The issue becomes excruciatingly clear that historical institutional racism has banished people of color from the great outdoors.”
This history goes all the way back to the Pilgrims when the “wilderness was viewed as a dangerous place, something that needed to be tamed and cultivated to survive.”
But by the 1800s, Lee says white people began to “romanticize” and “racialize” the outdoors. Cities were where immigrants and “people of color” dwelled, and were considered “dirty” and “unhealthy.”
Early environmentalists, tied to the eugenics movement, believed white people could “cultivate tough and boisterous characteristics in the outdoor environment.” Environmentalist Madison Grant considered parks a place where descendants of the Nordics — whom he thought were a “superior race” — could flourish.
Even former President Theodore Roosevelt, who oversaw the establishment of many national parks, did so over fears that the White race would become inferior if they became too soft, according to Lee’s research.
When the National Park Service was founded in 1916, Jim Crow laws had already been implemented in the South, and other racist laws and customs kept Black Americans out of these parks. Even when the NPS officially desegregated its parks in 1945, local ordinances still sometimes barred Black people entry,Lee said.
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Comments
Another troublemaker whining about that which is in the past.
As for what TR said: look at the condition of a lot of today’s folks compared to as recently as the 1950s. We ARE becoming “inferior” and soft.
This is yet more Marxist hogwash-beware of any such purported “studies”
This is all true. We own the outdoors, and we’re keeping it that way.
Highways are racist, to keep people of color away in the first place.
And if they do make it there, trees are racist, so they won’t be happy.
We have rope swings at all the good watering holes, to scare them away.
And at night we have campfires. Fires. At night, mind you. Pay attention.
Keep your trap houses and your Dexter Lake Clubs.
The outdoors is ours.
Ours, and tens of millions of Mexican/Central/South American “hikers.”
..and nothing we’ve seen since the 1800s has changed our minds one bit.
Frisco, Chicago, NYC, DC, Seattle, Portland, LA, Boston, StL, and Atlanta sure haven’t.
And? He should submit these finding to J. Duh
The outdoors are free for anyone to take advantage of. Typically, it takes a parent, a sibling, friend’s family, a school or community organization to introduce someone to these specific outdoor activities. The opportunities exist. I wonder where the gap is? As a doctor of science, I would expect better reasoning and an action plan. I guess I should lower my expectations for another race baiting ‘university personality’.
“The issue becomes excruciatingly clear that historical institutional racism has banished people of color from the great outdoors.”
“Excruciating.” That about sums it up. Is this pronouncement based on a serious peer-reviewed study of some sort? Or is this just another dispatch from the woke loony-bin department?
Particularly disturbing is the disproportionate dominance of blacks in basketball at every level — at a rate 600% higher than expected for a group comprising only 12.5% of the US population.
Unfortunately, the individuals locked out of basketball for purely racist reasons are then disproportionately forced into less prestigious activities such as hiking, fishing and hunting.
The problem is the world of hiking, fishing, and hunting is severely limited, with only enough room for basketball dropouts. This leaves no room for participation of successful basketball players at every level. A predictable, yet completely avoidable consequence of excelling at hoops in 4th grade.