I visit lots of National Parks and Monuments to see something interesting and to get my Pass Port book stamped. (you should get an NPS Pass Port and if eligible a life time pass)
I always check black attendance. It is low or non existent. The Park service has gone overboard to find some barely relevant event to celebrate as being black. A black person can visit a park and find something black to observe and even celebrate.
That is not, however, a great attractor of black people. It was built but they do not come.
National Parks and monuments are for the preservation of something worth while. Although there are some black people that grasp the concept, it seems proven by attendance that most just don’t give a damn
Some folks want the luxury of modern convenience. Not a lot of parks have the same amenities as an urban environment.
I’ve met a lot of white folks who see camping or sleeping in a wilderness lodge as dumb. I’ve met far more blacks like that though. The ones who do tend to band together. A coworker of mine enjoys outdoor living and hunting. He has a few other black friends he goes out with on such endeavors but it’s a small group. Far more won’t even entertain the idea. Another coworker when we mention it just right out the gate starts dismissing it.
A lot simply like their non-rural living and can’t imagine getting away and spending a day in the woods much less a night.
Almost 40 years ago I asked a black guy why so many blacks were afraid of the woods.
He simply said where blacks came from, Africa, everything in the woods wanted to bite you, kill you, or kill and eat you.
It’s not too different than why almost all people, regardless of race, have a natural internal fear of the dark.
RaCISM keeps them off the ski slopes; too...