Welcome to the conversations that Matter Podcast. My name is John Harris. So this is a very quick little video here, but I had to share it because I saw something the other day that I even I right I've seen a lot of

woke nonsense but but but this I just it's getting coquier and coquier and coquier and coquier.

So here's the question. I'll show you what I saw. I'll play it for you actually.

The question is is the outdoors inclusive as the outdoors inclusive to to ethnic minorities to out of this women to you know quote-unquote sexual minorities I mean the outdoors I'm talking about you know the

the sun and the the trees and the grass and the wind and you know when you go hiking the things that you enjoy is or go for a walk even in the park you know is that is that terrain is that environment just is it a racist environment that you're in I mean we know

inside's racist right we already know that that's systemic racism I mean it's in every

institution apparently it's in the family and it's in the it's in churches and it's in the

justice system and it's in business and it's in the government it's everywhere right so we

know inside is not good people people aren't good, what they

build, you know, it's all racist. But is the outdoors also racist? Like,

it's like, well, what do you have left at that point? Like, what, it's just inescapable. So anyway, here's the, here's what I saw that I just thought was so crazy. This hiker is making the outdoors more inclusive for black people. It's from the world economic forum.

She noticed that there were a few people of color in the outdoors so she created these

walking groups, started a grown community called Black Girls Hike in the UK, and she's trying to make the hobby more inclusive. Its members

have scaled snowed in the highest peak in Wales and 150 people have attended

Black Girls Hiking Club. Lack of diversity in public parks

isn't confined to the UK. In the US, around 90% of visitors to public lands are

white, despite making up 60% of the population.

Black people make up only 1% of visitors despite being around 13% of the total population.

While just 4 to 7% of visitors are Hispanic Latinos, despite the 18.5% of the U.S. population,

the lack of representation could be due to affordability and access.

Some parks have entrance fees are unreachable by public transit or require expensive equipment.

Historical trauma may also be a factor.

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