Blacks and nature

CL writes:

On the subject of blacks’ lack of curiosity, I thought you might appreciate this one. It is “old news” but interesting (emphasis mine):

The excursion came about after Ranger Shelton Johnson, who has spent 18 years working for the Park Service, wrote to Oprah asking her to consider visiting Yosemite [National Park ]. Johnson, who is African-American, told the talk show host that not enough black people visited the parks, and that perhaps she could help change that with a visit of her own. With African-Americans making up less than 2% of the visitors …

A lack of curiosity indeed …

LA replies:

I remember how at a Philadelphia Society meeting in the mid 1990s, then-National Review editor John O’Sullivan gave a talk in which he said that blacks are just like whites and that if America became all-black it wouldn’t change America in any fundamental way.

- end of initial entry -

Paul K. writes:

“With African-Americans making up less than 2% of the visitors … “

The percentage is not even that high. According to this article, “the National Park Service says just one percent of park visitors across the country is African American.” An article on camping in Washington state states, “One former ranger, who worked at Deception Pass and other state parks that each hosted up to 400,000 visitors a year, reported seeing fewer than 50 blacks over a 10-year period.”

Of course this is treated as a problem that must be remedied through outreach, special programs, etc. Liberal whites cannot believe that blacks are as indifferent to national parks as they are to symphony orchestras, ballet, art museums, and other aspects of white cultural heritage.

James P. writes:

With African-Americans making up less than two percent of the visitors, the odds of being “randomly” punched, stabbed, shot, robbed, or raped in the park are correspondingly reduced!

James W. writes:

While visiting my daughter in Los Angeles two years ago we spent an afternoon visiting Griffith Observatory, which was constructed by a Scottish-American philanthropist in gratitude for his experience in America. It was built high on a hill back in the day before smog or light polution existed, . There are mobs of people beginning even with the walk up, and what I saw were large numbers of Asians, Whites, and Latinos. No doubt a fair percentage were foreign tourist, but what stood out was the dog that didn’t bark. Not once. We are so used to it that it is not special, but it is special.

Susan G. writes:

It’s just as well that there aren’t more blacks in national parks. They will bring to that environment all the unattractive features of their urban neighborhoods, from mounds of abandoned trash to violent crime. In addition, one can expect an increase in wildfires caused by stupidity and negligence.

As it is, some areas of our national parks have become dangerous to ordinary (read: unarmed) visitors because of drug dealers and human traffickers from south of the border who don’t want visitors on their turf.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 26, 2012 09:51 AM | Send