represented. Michaela Caplan, vice president of the Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC), wrote in an op-ed that she hopes to create a sub-organization that addresses the interests of people of color, similar to a group started in the 1990s to serve the needs of female students called Women in the Wilderness (or WIW).
“A serious discussion about starting a mentorship program for all new members of the DOC has begun, so that no one will enter a meeting without a familiar presence there to greet them,” Caplan wrote in her campus newspaper, The Dartmouth. “The current thinking about the new member club is that, like WIW, it would also lead trips available to all Dartmouth students, but the leaders in this DOC will be [people of color] and/or international students. At least five minority students who have extensive wilderness experience (mostly outside of the DOC) have ex-pressed interest in and excitement about becoming leaders.”
Caplan and other student organizers across the country recognize the importance of creating a cultural environment where all of those interested in participating are made to feel welcome. The customs and traditions of past racial segregation endure into the present day to create unconscious barriers that suggest to people of color that they should opt out of activities they have every right to enjoy.
Sadly, the face of outdoor recreation has become institutionalized to reflect almost exclusively the values and priorities of the mainstream population, which Caplan describes as white, heterosexual, and upper middle class. With few role models or visible examples of fellow community members successfully spending time in nature, compounded by the impression that they don’t belong, many of her minority classmates will seek other forms of recreation. And although she too is reluctant to assign any blame for these circumstances of culture, she insists that now that we are aware they exist, we must do what we can to make things right.
“There is no personal fault innate here,” Caplan wrote. “A failure to recognize is not a malicious or even an active undertaking, but once this inertial reality is recognized and brought to the forefront, a failure to change becomes insidious.”
We must not assume that everyone feels welcome in our wild places. And those of us who aim to encourage others, particularly young people, to enjoy the outdoors will have to go out of our way to create opportunities and share narratives that celebrate our common legacy of environmental protection and stew-ardship. For future generations to preserve the natural world that many of us love today, we have to be willing to instill that same passion in others, particularly those in our society least likely to experience it.
Shortly after my visit to Dartmouth, I was invited to present my book and our film on Expedition Denali in St. Paul, Minn. First in a series of speakers in the Design for Equity Residency sponsored by the Saint Paul Riverfront Corporation, I was graciously welcomed by a large crowd of supporters eager to learn how they might help to make the outdoors more accessible to everyone. In the audience was Ed Lysne, who asked if I would come out the following morning to speak to his students at the Open World Learning Community, a charter school where he teaches outdoor education.
“The boys would really like to meet you,” he said.
The next day, I sat in a circle with 12 young men who enthusiastically expressed to me their excitement for the many programs that had introduced them to nature. Their lessons in outdoor classrooms brought them a better understanding of not only their role in environmental protection but also the joy of playing and learning outside as a normal part of their school day. Among these students was an African-American youth named Maleik, who Lysne told me had once said “black people just aren't made for the outdoors.” Now a mentor to his younger classmates, Maleik takes great pride in sharing photographs and stories of his adventures while camping and hiking throughout his home state of Minnesota. “Alright,” he said a bit self-consciously. “It is pretty cool.”
And just like that, the adventure gap begins to close.