Posted on 08/28/2016 10:55:31 AM PDT by PROCON
Last month, two friends and I backpacked for a week in the Sierra Nevada. We hiked through meadows dotted with wildflowers, slept beneath snow-draped peaks and met plenty of other hikers: the dad and son whose Green Bay Packers caps sparked a conversation about our mutual ties to Wisconsin; scientists from UC Santa Cruz studying flowers and rock formations; five recent college grads from Kentucky who were hiking the John Muir Trail before they scattered to begin their adult lives.
But as the days passed, I grew increasingly troubled by the people we didn’t meet. There were a few Asian hikers, including a couple of hapas like me (I’m half Japanese and half Polish) and one of my friends was half-Iranian, but not a single backpacker who was Latino or African American.
This near-total absence of people of color — which I’ve noticed on past trips as well — was particularly striking because it was such a contrast to my everyday life. I live and work in Los Angeles. The majority of people in my working life are Latino, African American or Asian, and the people in my personal life, including my Mexican American spouse, are reflective of the city’s population.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
There are charities that do exactly that.
Yes, hanging trees and uniformed rangers. Thanks for all the replies.
That was pretty much her attitude. She was from Belize. “So what’s hiking,” she said. “Just walking, with a stick.”
I loved the “Snakes make you run into trees.....SNAAAAKE! *BAM*”
So the backcountry can then look like this
LOL!
“People of color” are more inclined to march than to hike.
How is this phenoma “unfair”? If blacks and Latinos prefer not to go backpacking, hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, etc., why the hell should I care or do anything about it? It’s their choice to do as they llease. Is the author suggesting that I should drag a bucket of KFC or a platter of carne asada behind me next time I venture into the Sierra Nevada mountains to entice my minority neighbors / co-workers to follow me into the woods?
What an a$$hole.
This is one of the problems with hiking. I won't even use the paved nature trails near my home because of the various threats to safety.
Interesting
Pomona 1959-1977.
Perhaps we can fix this situation by figuring out how to implement spinning rims on hiking shoes
So no minorities in National Parks? Obama has already made it free for those with kids in fourth grade. (http://www.nationalparks.org/ook/every-kid-in-a-park ) what more do you want? Could us taxpayers pay them to hike, that might work. Maybe the new admission will be to bring a minority along.
When I was young I remember asking a WWII army veteran why he didn't camp, and he said he had done enough already thank you.
If you're poor and can afford to buy a car (even if it is a POS) then why would you want to walk anywhere?
If you're poor and you are fortunate to have a roof over your head (even if it's in a tenement) then why would you want to live out of a tent?
If you're poor and you can afford some meat (even if it isn't the best quality) then why the heck would you be a vegetarian?
It used to be a mark of dishonor to have a tan because it meant you worked in the fields. Now a tan means you make enough money that you can afford the time to just sit around in the sun by a pool.
Having the financial wherewithal to spend a week or two pretending to be an illegal alien, i.e. walking on your own two feet and living out of tents eating only what you can carry on your back is not a luxury that poor people can afford.
It certainly isn't something that a successful person of color wants to engage in since it evokes the poverty he/she has successfully escaped.
Liberal elitists are working on ways to make it difficult for even middle class whites to enjoy camping and backpacking. They are trying to get more and more land designated as wilderness. So those who can spare just a weekend to get out into the backcountry, won't be able to do so because the backcountry will only be available to those who have the time to walk for a week or two to get to it.
The naivety and denial is strong with this SJW.
the silly cow should be more troubled by the ones it meets on the streets... feh
I’m a city girl too——and DETEST camping.
Staying at a Motel 6 would be about as adventurous as I ever want to get.
;-)
.
You posted: “When I was young I remember asking a WWII army veteran why he didn’t camp, and he said he had done enough already thank you.”
That is what I told my daughters when they asked about going camping!
Besides the backpacks, one needs a tent or two, cooking gear, sleeping bags, food, fishing gear or other outdoor toys, etc., to do more than an afternoon backpack on a local trail.
It's not cheap to go outside. Add that to your government handout program.
-PJ
“bus inner-city children up to the Sierras so they too can enjoy the backcountry.”
Somewhat related, after the Rodney King riots, Rev. Cecil Murray complained that one of the root causes was a lack of economic opportunity for the youth. I worked at the famous Anaheim theme park, so they paid the good reverend a princely sum, to bus in dozens of such youth, as “castmembers”.
They built a well appointed break area, filled with snack machines, TVs, ping pong tables, and plush living room furniture - much better than us current castmembers were accustomed to. Since it was next to my office, I would go there from time to time. It was filled with folks on perpetual break. No matter what time of day you were there, the same people were lounging around. Any people of color who were actually working took great effort to make sure you knew they were not from the “bus crowd”. If you dared to go into the room on a Sunday morning and turn on a light, you were quickly shouted at ( I usually opened a curtain, before I left, just for fun).
After the political pressure died down, and the Rev. had collected about a year’s worth of monthly $5K “donations”, the busing ceased. The brand new “break room” was gutted, furnishings discarded, and the portable building was dissembled (as well it needed to be). We regular castmembers went back to our original break room, with formica tables, plastic chairs, and one TV that was not cable.
Enjoy the hike and don’t be obsessed with the ethnicity of your fellow hikers. Bet there weren’t any Finns either.
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