Racism in the Great Outdoors

For John, BLUF:  Our past was not perfect.  Nor is the present.  I have some hope for the future.  But we all have to work at it.  by Ann Althouse at 3:38 PM Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"The Great Outdoors Was Made for White People."

Here is the sub-headline:

A great headline at The Nation...  but is it deadly serious?  Actually, yes

Posted by Ann Althouse, 29 May 2021, 3:38 PM .

Here is the lede plus one:

Through military and legislative intervention, such as the Mariposa Battalion’s violent raid of the village of Ahwahneechee in 1851, which expelled the remaining Indigenous people from Yosemite, these places were cultivated primarily for white people.  Early conservationists like Bowles, or the venerated John Muir or Madison Grant (who wrote one of the foundational texts of the American eugenics movement, The Passing of the Great Race:  Or, The Racial Basis of European History), were not shy in advocating racial exclusivity:  When they spoke of the importance of nature for our nation, they meant the white nation....

The complicated relationships that people of color in the United States have developed with the outdoors because of white violence, coupled with the fact that many local parks—and all national parks—either did not admit people of color or, in some cases, segregated them until 1964, rendered it an effectively white domain....

This is a blot on the National Park Service, but also on the Nation as a whole.  The idea whole Parks would be closed to People of Color is an affront to all.

I assume it is better today, but as COVID-19 fades I will be looking at crowds that visit our National Park here in Lowell and pondering who is there and who isn't.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff