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Longtime oppression and historical barriers have kept many people of color from feeling comfortable in the American outdoors. Now that may be changing. Groups in Southern California and around the nation have made it their goal to introduce people of color to nature in a positive way. Their mission is to remove barriers and help people experience the connection, whether they are seeking fitness, healing, personal accomplishment or knowledge about all the outdoors has to offer. For many, the first step is going on a hike. Here are groups working toward a more diverse outdoors.
Latino Outdoors: Christian La Mont, program manager of Latino Outdoors, a national organization with a Los Angeles chapter, calls the process of removing barriers “the hike before the hike.” The idea is that people of color see themselves represented on the trail.
Hiking has a diversity problem. These BIPOC groups are working to fix it msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Why hike in L.A.? There are as many answers as there are Angelenos who lace up boots and hit trails. Southern California’s mountains and forests can serve as an outdoor gym, a sanctuary from the urban buzz, a spiritual space to heal and reflect, a place to pose and be seen (especially on Instagram), an entry to the natural world of tarantulas and newts, and a place to scale an unthinkably high peak. For the devout, it’s a lifestyle choice that in nonpandemic times brings us closer as a community.
(Tomi Um / For the Times)
Where to start? There are roughly 1 million acres to explore in the L.A. area. The nation’s largest national park in an urban setting, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, offers 154,000 acres from Hollywood to Point Mugu. Continue east to Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area and Griffith Park, handy urban green spaces that are a freeway off-ramp away, then head east and north to the wilder Angeles National Forest where you can roam 700,
Evelynn Escobar Wants To Help the BIPOC Community Reclaim Outdoor Spaces msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Hike Clerb / Jewelyn Butron
Public parks, nature reserves, and recreational spaces should be sources of joy, adventure, and empowerment for all. But the current landscape is far from equitable. Ninety-five percent of visitors to national parks are white, according to research conducted by the National Parks Service. And it s
not because BIPOC communities don t enjoy the great outdoors as much as other folks.
But, as always, you can bet that there are some powerful activists and boots-on-the-ground initiatives across the country working to make the great outdoors a safer, more accessible place for
everyone.
Of course, many of these adventure equity crusaders are the very Black women who have experienced firsthand the systemic racism and lack of equity that prevents BIPOC people from getting more involved in activities like hiking, camping, and climbing.