As promotion for the new Ken Burns film, The National Parks: America's Best Idea, goes into high gear, some bizarre theories about the parks and their visitors are surfacing.
Apparently, Burns is working plenty of politics into his documentary.
There's the Obama family trip to Yellowstone, with Obama being compared to FDR by Burns' collaborator, Dayton Duncan. According to Duncan, the "sincere" visit to Yellowstone by Obama was racially significant.
Now, we have more race injected into the discussion of the national parks.
Yosemite Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, an African American, believes that slavery has kept blacks from visiting.
From ABC News:
America's national parks have a quiet power and an arresting beauty, but to Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson, they also speak the truth.
"They tell the story of us as Americans," Johnson said. "They tell the story of ourselves as human beings, in this world, on this planet."
Johnson is one of the country's few African-American park rangers, and his is a rare face of color at Yosemite because less than 1 percent of visitors to the national park in California are black.
"There's not a shortage of African Americans at Disneyland or Disney World," Johnson said. "But when you visit these wild places, like Zion and Arches and Yellowstone, that's when you start seeing less cultural diversity."
Johnson, 51, said he would like that to change, but he believes the disconnect between blacks and nature has deep roots. Slavery, he said, forever altered how African Americans view natural lands.
"There's actual pain, physical and spiritual pain, tied to working the earth," Johnson said. "There's just been this gradual loss of connection with the natural world."
WHAT?
Good grief, that's weird.
Why would places like Yellowstone or Yosemite elicit pain for African Americans?
This notion that slavery has made blacks avoid natural lands is really odd.
Visiting a place and seeing Old Faithful has nothing to do with "working the earth." That's silly. How many African Americans have a personal history of working the earth anyway?
Why would present-day African Americans experience "actual pain, physical and spiritual pain," when viewing the natural world?
The land at Yellowstone and Yosemite doesn't resemble farm fields. Where's the oppression?
I fail to see any painful association between slavery and the national parks for African Americans.
It's a very bizarre theory.
Do today's African Americans avoid lunch counters or buses or drinking fountains because their ancestors experienced discrimination there?
This is priceless:
"If Oprah Winfrey is recreating in a national park, or if it's Snoop Dogg, then that is actually sending a message that this is an environment that is also for us," Johnson said. "Whenever we visit a national park, we're all going home. We're all tying into our roots."
Oprah and Snoop Dogg?
They need to visit national parks to send a message to African Americans that it's OK to go there?
Come on.
I think it would be great for there to be more diversity among visitors at the national parks.
I also think that to suggest the lack of diversity there has something to do with slavery is a real stretch.
Video.
5 comments:
Mary I just watched the video and honestly, can't see what your problem is with it or his claim. By the way, what a nice and tall (!) man he is!
It's not the Oprah and Snoop need to tell blacks it's "okay" to go to the parks. It's that they, like the Obamas, could introduce them to the parks. It shouldn't matter what color you are to set/take an example, but fact is, it does. I would think that if blacks who never ventured out of the city saw their role models enjoying the parks it might just entice them to check the parks out. Then they would pass that on to their kids. And , as they used to say in the old Breck commercials, so on and so on.... That's how a lot of people learn about parks, and camping and enjoying the great outdoors - by being introduced to it by their parents.
I watched this program with my wife and family tonight. It was a beautiful program and we were all surprised to see Shelton Johnson, an African American Park Ranger. I am a African American father and husband of two sons. I do understand Mr. Johnson"s comments but I think there is more to the story. I took my family to Yosemite (from Houston Texas) and we had a glorious time visiting the entire park from the granite mountains and high country lakes, to the giant sequoias and beautiful waterfalls. Not one time did we see another African American inside the park. I was truly surprised and sadden by the knowledge that so much beauty has gone unnoticed by so many in this nation. I believe a person's love for nature can be attributed to his upbringing and education. My parents loved nature and now I'm sharing that love with my wife and family. My sons (ages 5 & 7) now loved it as well. They have traveled the top of Sandia Mountain in New Mexico, to the top of Haleakala on Maui, and many national parks in between. Now we're planning a trip to Yellowstone. I only wish I could encourage more people of color to visit our national parks. But the appreciation for nature must start at home. Encourage your children to watch public broadcast programs such as this. Let them explore the wonders of this country through television. Take them to a botanical garden or a state park. Expand their horizons well beyond tv shows like Josh and Drake or ICARLY and then maybe they too will develop a love for nature. Maybe they will visit one of our natural (treasures) parks.
Mark L in Houston Texas
America, the Beautiful!
The wonders of nature inspire me. They nurture my soul. They give me peace and I feel God's presence.
I encourage all Americans to experience the great natural beauty of our nation.
I saw an article about this guy in sfgate.com. To me, it sounded like asking a football player about gay marriage (I think it was Reggie White). This park ranger should concentrate more on "the land". That should be his mission. And if he wants Oprah to do a show about the park or Snoop Dogg to do a rap about it, go ask them. The fact that they are ignorant of the treasure of all of this, has nothing to do with slavery, of course. Hey so many whites no nothing of this either. So what!
I'm an African American I've visited eight of the ten of the most spectacular National Parks, including many lesser ones in the east and south. Unfortunately I was only accompanied by my faithful dog Jazz a rottweiler who passed after 16 years and four months. My favorite being Death Valley, no cellphone signals no telephone poles no houses or stores cluttering the many vistas, the only sound being my breathing the silence was so intoxicating, I'm not a religious person but I felt more spirituality in these spots then ever listening to a Sunday sermon. I was always disappointed that I didn't see African Americans, but when I'd return from these forays in to the National Parks most friends and family were not even interested in what I saw or experienced. They sometimes look at me as if I were from another planet. But I always had the experience that I had become more human and how insignificant people are compared to the wonders that I saw. Compared to man-made "wonders" these visual cathedrals, simply put, there is no comparison. Whenever I'm depressed I canvass my memories and a glow overcomes me that I actually witness things that did not even seem real, but real nonetheless. Until my last dying breath as long as I have a memory I shall never forget.
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