The Color of Climate
Racism Determines Who Gets to Enjoy Nature
Black people face discrimination and threats just for being outside
This is The Color of Climate, a weekly column from OneZero exploring how climate change and other environmental issues uniquely impact the future of communities of color.
In 2015, Grace Anderson was backpacking through the Sierra Nevada along California’s historic John Muir Trail, minding her own business, when a white person showed up.
“[They] came up to me and were like, ‘Oh, cool. You’re doing a diversity project,’” Anderson tells OneZero. “I’m like, ‘No, I’m just outside.’”
It wasn’t the only time that Anderson, a Black climber and outdoor educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area, has experienced racial discrimination while trying to enjoy the great outdoors. Strangers have tried to touch her hair and stared at her while she was climbing, hiking, and camping, she says. The staring makes her feel unsafe.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, can I sleep here tonight?’”
Anderson is hardly the only Black person who has faced racial discrimination and threats to their well-being for simply, well, being outside.
