Posted on 07/13/2015 1:52:55 PM PDT by rightistight
Glenn Nelson of the New York Times asked last week, "Why Are Our Parks So White?" Mr. Nelson believes that race plays a role in visiting national parks and not enough minorities are going to parks.
According to Nelson, "The national parks attracted a record 292.8 million visitors in 2014, but a vast majority were white and aging. The most recent survey commissioned by the park service on visitation, released in 2011, found that 22 percent of visitors were minorities, though they make up some 37 percent of the population.
"This suggests an alarming disconnect," he writes.
Nelson believes that white people are, at least in part, to blame. "Carla DeRise has been to Mount Rainier and other parks, and is game to go again," Nelson details. "She just can’t get any of her friends to come along. They are worried about unfriendly white people, hungry critters and insects, and unforgiving landscapes, said Ms. DeRise."
He then details how, as a child, Nelson joked with friends about finding "Whites Only" signs at parks "or the perils of being lynched or attacked while collecting firewood after the sun went down."
Minorities don't feel welcome in parks, Nelson continues. To that end, "We need to demolish the notion that the national parks and the rest of nature are an exclusive club where minorities are unwelcome.
"The place to start is the National Park Service," he continues. "About 80 percent of park service employees in 2014 were white. The parks’ official charity, the National Park Foundation, has four minority members on its 22-person board."
In the end, Mr. Nelson concludes, "I hope the National Park Service and its partners are listening."
I personally stand outside Yellowstone in a Yogi The Bear costume and chase off people who reflect too little light.
Now if Whitey could only stop Black Crime by the color of their skin. ...instead of attracting it!
You should be lynched if you are collecting firewood in a National Park after sundown.
That beats the crap out of your blog, huh?
ha! quote of the day.
If the National Parks would only pipe in Rap and Hip Hop to drowned out the annoy sounds of birds, moving water, the wind.....
The parks are always available to everyone. It’s just that certain cultural groups prefer to stay closer to home.
Or maybe many non whites don;t care to visit because we share different interests.
Just a thought.
Glenn Nelson is full of more crap than a Christmas goose.
I haven’t gone to a national park since they began charging
for the privilege of viewing that for which I already paid to buy. Whether anyone attends or avoids, it has nothing to do with me.
I will be cheering if the NY Times ever goes out of business. That paper is a force multiplier of sheer idiocy in the world.
and steal from the ones on vacation...
I thought this was illegal under Brown v. Yogi Bear.
Walking in the woods with your pants halfway down to you knees is a great way to get mosquito bites in some tender areas.
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