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Started By
Message
Against All Odds, Black Women Are Hitting The Trails
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:11 am
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
“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
9
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:12 am to djmed
Walking in the woods is now racist?
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:13 am to djmed
"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."
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 on 4/29/24 at 9:13 am to djmed
quote:
There are several barriers at play that keep many of us from participating in outdoor recreation
No, there isnt.
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:17 am to djmed
: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.
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 on 4/29/24 at 9:18 am to RogerTheShrubber
"Then there are the bears, that are 60 times more likely to attack and consume a woman of color than a white woman..."
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:18 am to djmed
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 on 4/29/24 at 9:19 am to djmed
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 on 4/29/24 at 9:20 am to RiverCityTider
“You hear that Ed? Bears. Now you are putting the whole station in jeopardy!”
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:23 am to djmed
quote:
Good hiking shoes on their own — even when purchased secondhand — can be expensive.
Trendy, designer hiking shoes/boots can be expensive. Great, super high-quality hiking shoes/boots can be somewhat expensive. Good hiking shoes/boots are dirt cheap.
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:23 am to djmed
quote:
We live in a world that often underestimates, oversexualizes
I'm calling BS on this. Black women are dead last in all surveys of men on levels of attraction by race. They're barely even at the top of attractiveness from their own black men.
This whole article is bullshite.
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:25 am to shinerfan
quote:
Good hiking shoes/boots are dirt cheap.
I bet normal work boots would do fine at that sort of thing.
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:28 am to djmed
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 on 4/29/24 at 9:29 am to djmed
I don't understand this subtext that Black folks have been denied access to the outdoors.
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:30 am to Northshore Aggie
the only ACTUAL barrier that has historically prevented ANYONE from hitting the trails is a lack of desire to exercise. take that as you will as it pertains to ***insert Oppressed Minority Group***.
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:33 am to djmed
quote:
We live in a world that often underestimates, oversexualizes and endangers us
isnt this the same group of people who from the age of about 12 through the age of about 85 do the "stick my arse out towards the camera while looking back over my shoulder" pose in essentially every photo they are ever in?
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:44 am to VoxDawg
Ditto for swimming. There's a place here in Atlanta that pitches itself as "fully accessible". Swem School (Yes, the misspelling is deliberate).
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:46 am to djmed
quote:
“I love to move my body. I love to sweat. I love to be with people. ...
Naah, I'm good.
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:47 am to djmed
quote:
a heightened issue for Black women and nonbinary people. We live in a world that often underestimates, oversexualizes and endangers us.
NOBODY is oversexualizing black women, unless it's black women themselves.
You will never find a 400 lb black woman who thinks she might not be attractive. Ol' girl is the sexiest thing going - just ask her. Hell, just be in the same room. She'll probably tell you anyway.
Posted on 4/29/24 at 9:48 am to djmed
quote:
othering.
WTAF is this?
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