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Against All Odds, Black Women Are Hitting The Trails

Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:11 am
Posted by djmed
Member since Aug 2020
2608 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:11 am
Against All Odds, Black Women Are Hitting The Trails

“I love to move my body. I love to sweat. I love to be with people. ... Hiking brings all those things together.”


IT WASN’T UNTIL I was in my mid-20s and living in Seattle that I went on my first hike with a colleague. As a Black girl growing up in Detroit, let’s just say that the practice was not common in my circle.

If you’ve ever gone hiking, the chances that you passed another Black person — let alone another Black woman — on the trail are relatively low. Although the trend is slowly shifting, recent data showed that fewer than a quarter of visitors at national parks were people of color. In 2018, 6% of visitors were Black. So why so few of us? Well, that’s complex.

There are several barriers at play that keep many of us from participating in outdoor recreation. And while no one is literally stopping us from exploring the outdoors, the context to how we’re perceived is important here. It wasn’t that long ago that my community was legally banned from public parks and prohibited from accessing many trails around the country.

LINK

Posted by Schleynole
Member since Sep 2022
457 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:12 am to
Walking in the woods is now racist?
Posted by djmed
Member since Aug 2020
2608 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:13 am to
"We also cannot ignore that safety is a heightened issue for Black women and nonbinary people. We live in a world that often underestimates, oversexualizes and endangers us. And so, when hopping onto a trail that may lead us deep into nature, we’re facing a compounded risk.

And then we have to consider logistics. Black Americans are statistically less likely to live close to green spaces, biodiversity and other outdoor amenities that are conducive to hiking. And while we know that proximity to green space has links to mental well-being, our access to the great outdoors is an oft-overlooked component of social justice.

There is also the issue of gear. Though hiking appears to be an egalitarian form of working out (it’s kind of just walking, right?), it’s not. Good hiking shoes on their own — even when purchased secondhand — can be expensive. Just preparing to hike, some women I spoke to told me, can feel othering."
Posted by RogerTheShrubber
Juneau, AK
Member since Jan 2009
261423 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:13 am to
quote:

There are several barriers at play that keep many of us from participating in outdoor recreation


No, there isnt.
Posted by teke184
Zachary, LA
Member since Jan 2007
96367 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:17 am to
:eyeroll:

This is like the claims that gay people are more impacted by climate change.


No one was going to fund hiking trails in Detroit between crime and the fact that the entire city’s infrastructure is disintegrating.

If she had lived in a more rural area or in another part of the country, it would have been different but that isn’t necessarily racial.
Posted by NPComb
Member since Jan 2019
27457 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:18 am to
quote:

There are several barriers at play that keep many of us from participating in outdoor recreation


- the effort
- no A/C
- no cultural foods
- weave fungus
Posted by OysterPoBoy
City of St. George
Member since Jul 2013
35397 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:19 am to
quote:

It wasn’t that long ago that my community was legally banned from public parks and prohibited from accessing many trails around the country.



But it kind of was.
Posted by Northshore Aggie
Mandeville
Member since Sep 2022
4770 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:28 am to
i dont know when exactly we moved from "actual barriers" to "perceived barriers" as the standard by which we measure oppression, but we have fully moved to the latter, and then some. the Oppressed Minority Groups (OMGs) main grift now is literally just finding something that mostly white people do, then doing building an entire backstory for why that's actually racist and oppressive, then peddling that narrative to the media and academia. it's unreal.
Posted by VoxDawg
Glory, Glory
Member since Sep 2012
60500 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:29 am to
I don't understand this subtext that Black folks have been denied access to the outdoors.
Posted by Liberator
Ephesians 6:10-16
Member since Jul 2020
8648 posts
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:46 am to
quote:

“I love to move my body. I love to sweat. I love to be with people. ...




Naah, I'm good.
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