June Field Notes - Equity In The Outdoors
photo courtesy of @threlkeldoutdoors
Mike Smith | OSI Executive Director
Many of us think of the outdoors as a safe haven. It’s a place we can escape to, a place we can regain balance and find perspective. It’s comforting to think that the natural world is a place untainted by inequality, politics, and societal conflict.
Except, of course, that’s not true.
As we began social distancing during the onset of COVID-19, trail heads and parking lots saw many of us struggling not to congregate in uncomfortably large numbers. It was apparent that we can carry a high degree of cognitive dissonance between our intentions and our actions in the outdoors.
Likewise the recently amplified conversation about racism in America is forcing us to acknowledge that simply “not being racist” doesn’t change the fact that the outdoors and outdoor sport are inherently steeped in white privilege.
I have been thinking about the parallels between the coronavirus and racism in the outdoor spaces we inhabit. The lesson I keep coming back to is that a virus doesn’t care if your intention is not to spread it. Whether a biological virus like COVID-19, or a social virus like racism, we’re being given an opportunity to realize that being proactive is actually the only way to implement change.
To that end, right now like a lot of individuals and organizations across the outdoor sector we are asking the question “What can we do to make the outdoors safe and equitable for all?”
When it comes to the coronavirus, programs around the country are slowly reopening with a new set of guidelines and protocols to help people get back outside while at the same time trying to mitigate the threat of this disease. It doesn’t matter if that program runs in a rural community with very few documented COVID-19 cases or an urban center that has had many. Everyone has to address the threat.
But what does that look like when it comes to racism? How can we be proactive in addressing this in even the most remote corners of the outdoor world? How can we actually fulfill the promise of the outdoors truly being for everyone?
Our vision at OSI is that all people should have the opportunity and skills to spend a lifetime actively playing outdoors. In order for that to happen we have to constantly seek to understand the barriers that prevent this from happening. Like so many of you, we’re trying to become more educated on how to take action, how to be anti-racist, and what that can look like in outdoor sport.
We'd love to start by hearing from you. Email us and let us know the ways you're working on these issues in your own communities. We do not claim to have the answers, but we are committed to keeping these conversations going and to sharing the proactive, actionable ways we can build racial equity into our work, our institutions, and the outdoors.
I hope you'll join us.