Cascade PBS’ Post

Transcript

The outdoor and environmental movement has an exclusionary past, doesn't it, Allison? Absolutely. The history of the outdoors is one full of exclusion that has led to the nature gap that persists in communities of color today. One of the stories that I share in my show is about a Black man, Armand Lucas, who is an avid birder and now has started his own community for BIPAC birders called Urban Woods Collective. Now, when people think of birding, they think of John James Audubon, whose name is almost synonymous with birds. But Audubon was a complex and troubling character even by the standards of his day. He enslaved Black people, wrote critically about emancipation. He stole human remains. And sent the skulls to a colleague who used them to assert that whites were superior to non whites in early outing. Groups like the Mountaineers in Washington and the Mazamas in Oregon were pretty much all white back in the day. Participants had to have money, they equipment, leisure time, supportive peers to engage in things like hiking, outdoor recreation, mountain climbing. Back in the early 1900s. Women though were heavily involved. Also was women clubs. Became more important social and advocacy organizations. They were segregated early on as well. Yeah, the idea that white women who had to fight to prove their worth to white men were themselves upholding systems of oppression is a tough pill to swallow.