Last year, Wellesley College invited Mardi Fuller, a black outdoorswoman, to speak at an event on campus. She shared her experience as the first black woman to summit all 48 peaks of the White Mountains, in New Hampshire. 

She spoke about her personal roots with the outdoors, as well as about the struggle of being a black woman in an often white outdoors community – she told her audience about the microaggressions, and sometimes flat out ignorance, she faces from other outdoors people. 

When I say ‘outdoors person’, as Mardi refers to herself as, I mean someone who actively engages in outdoors activities, especially ones that involve nature, such as hiking, rock climbing, cross country running/skiing, and more. For many of us, ‘systematic discrimination’- the way society discriminates against minorities- exists at work, in schools, the government,  the workplace, or on social media. 

Yet, as Mardi Fuller’s experiences make clear, it is everywhere — even in the outdoors

Outdoor activities and sports have always been dominated by white people. According to a study that surveyed a number of the largest Olympic teams’ socio demographic profiles, 95% of winter and 82% of summer athletes were white. 

According to research studies in recent years, white people are much more likely to visit state and national parks than BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). Even more troubling, BIPOC are three times less likely to live in communities or neighborhoods with  access to nature. 

Why is the Environmental Movement So White?

It certainly isn’t that “POC just don’t care about the environment”. BIPOC tend to be less involved with the outdoors largely because of 1) historical segregation of BIPOC in specific activities, 2) financial freedom and leisure time, and 3) lack of inclusivity in those places.

Historical segregation of BIPOC in the Outdoors

Let’s talk more about one of these places: the U.S. National Parks.

John Muir, an early champion of the National Parks and the preservation movement (the movement that sought to start conserving areas of nature), ‘reenvisioned Native homelands as a spiritual home for white seekers’. He believed that nature was best preserved from the touch of man.

As an integral part of the Sierra Club,  he also made a number of derogatory comments about Black people and Indigenous peoples grounded in extremely racist stereotypes.

It comes as no surprise that the men who created the environmental movement merely 50 years after slavery was abolished subscribed to harmful and racist ideas like these.

Current Segregation of BIPOC in Environmental Movements

As it often goes, the history of racism led to the job market being exclusive towards the BIPOC community, rarely considering BIPOC for significant leadership positions in environmental organizations.

According to an NBC report, entitled The numbers don’t lie’: The green movement remains overwhelmingly white, many environmental organizations reported ‘having no people of color in senior levels, including Oceana, an ocean conservation nonprofit, and the BlueGreen Alliance, which works with labor unions to promote clean jobs and infrastructure’. As it often goes, that history has bled into and led to the current state of affairs– in which the BIPOC community remains excluded from these organizations. 

Less financial freedom and leisure time

Another part of the equation of course is that the BIPOC community as a whole has less financial freedom to engage in such activities. This is especially burdensome as rock climbing gears costs, transportation costs, and opportunity cost of time are all high for outdoor trips. Camping trips mean taking days off from potential work hours, or not having enough time for family. Traveling and participating in unpaid activities, like climate rallies, are just not financially feasible for many BIPOC.

The socioeconomic status of BIPOC is significantly lower than those of white communities. There is simply less time and financial freedom for BIPOC communities to engage with the outdoors in the first place. According to a study by Pew Research Center, “white households are about 13 times as wealthy as black households – a gap that has grown wider since the Great Recession”.

Lack of Inclusivity

Lastly, the BIPOC community doesn’t necessarily want to participate in outdoor activities, likely  due to the lack of inclusivity and representation in it. People facing microaggressions or racism, like Mardi Fuller, are common experiences for BIPOC, and reminders that outdoor activities have yet to become inclusive for the BIPOC community.

It is time for the environmental movement to transcend the legacies of history. This is already beginning to happen. Sierra Club owns up to its past, announcing in 2022 that their new CEO would be Ben Jealous, a BIPOC-identifying activist who has done significant work on human rights and the criminal system. Moreover, the BIPOC community has been making some noise, with a number of movements around the world, such as Brown Girls Climb, Latino Outdoors, Indigenous Women Hike, and Black Girls Run, all doing the important work to make the outdoors more accessible and inclusive for all.