DIVERSITY: It's the most natural thing in the world

By Gemma Peckham

(This article first appeared in ROVA Adventure Seven, June/July 2018.)

Ambreen Tariq

In nature, everything is unique. No two leaves are the same; rivers overflow, change course and dry up; each sunrise illuminates a landscape that is slightly different than it was the day before. It’s what we love about the outdoors—experiences so diverse that we can’t stop chasing them.

But despite nature’s insistence that uniqueness is beauty, that diversity is not reflected in the visitors that are typically found to be enjoying the outdoors.

Enjoying nature comes with challenges that are common to all adventurers; things like finding the time to get outside, unfamiliarity with equipment or landscapes, or finding someplace to shower or use the bathroom. 

For a number of travelers, however, the difficulties faced in the outdoor environment are not simply practical or technical. Minority groups, such as people of color, the queer community and women, face a host of challenges that are more complex than purely camping concerns.

The 2017 Outdoor Participation Report shows that of the 144.4 million Americans who participated in outdoor activities during that year, 73 percent were Caucasian.

The Report shows that among the barriers for minorities (Black, Latino and Asian people) to getting outside are the expense of equipment, a lack of people to participate with, and, startlingly, a fear of getting hurt by other people.

The queer community is not included in the report at all—an oversight which is in itself a comment on the exclusion of this group in the outdoor community in general.

Ambreen Tariq, founder of @BrownPeopleCamping, a social media storytelling project based primarily on Instagram, works to illuminate the complexity of the situation that people of color or minorities find themselves in in the outdoors, and to encourage people from all backgrounds to get out and enjoy themselves—and to become custodians for the land that we all enjoy so much.

“We need to grow the number of people who love the outdoors so that we have more people willing to stand up and defend our environment, and fight for its wellbeing for future generations,” Tariq says. “Diversifying the outdoors is important for everybody. It's not just the right thing to do—it's critical for our environment.

“At the end of the day, you can't defend or fight for something if it's an abstract concept to you. Unless you get out there and actually grow a connection to the land – have actual memories and joy and sentimentality connected to it –  then that abstraction only goes so far.”

Tariq says that the best way to achieve this growth, and to open the outdoors up to everyone who wants to be a part of it, is first to understand the reasons for the disparity.

“There are so many complicated socioeconomic reasons that make it harder for some people to get outdoors than others,” Tariq says. “We have to recognize that not all people in this country have equal footing to access the outdoors. Even though this land belongs to all of us, it’s just not the case [that we all have equal opportunity to enjoy it].”

According to the Report, the most common annual household income for outdoor recreation participants, at 32 percent, is $100,000 or more. The average American household income is said to be somewhere in the vicinity of $75,000, but in minority groups it is much lower. Before a minority traveler even considers outdoor recreation, they are at a financial disadvantage.

Then there’s representation in the media. Marketing teams the world over have historically done an incredible job of promoting the outdoors as the realm of young, white, athletic males, omitting people of color, people of varying genders and physical attributes, and LGBTQ+ representatives. This one-dimensional portrayal of the outdoors carries over into the physical spaces; rarely on the trails are minorities encountering other people with whom they identify. 

“I think one of the biggest barriers that many people of color struggle with is the simple fact that you look around and no one else looks like you,” says Tariq.

“No other part of my life is so homogeneous as when I go outdoors. The music that I listen to, the food that I eat, the entertainment that I enjoy, the people who I work with, the apartment building that I live in, the train that I take; none of it is so lacking in diversity as when I go outside.

The type of activity presented as “outdoorsy” is also particularly short-sighted. Seldom in the media do we see a diversity of participants enjoying time in metropolitan parks, or walking riverside in their towns, for example, as a portrayal of what it means to enjoy an outdoor lifestyle.

“People should be able to own their experiences outdoors and genuinely feel that their family cookouts at the park makes them just as much of an outdoors person as anyone else,” says Tariq. “Being an ‘outdoorsy person’ is a concept that we need to expand to reflect the reality of our lifestyles. People should be celebrated for enjoying green spaces however they choose, and not always compared to extreme standards like summiting a mountain or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.”

Human connection with the outdoors has a long and storied history. Tariq believes that our current enjoyment of the land should be informed by the experiences of the people who came before us, as well as the current communities that occupy the space.

“It’s important for everyone to understand the local community where they travel. Who are the people who live here? What is their relationship to this land? What is the history of this place? Before them, who was here?

“Learn that everybody has a different relationship to the land, whether you're an immigrant, an indigenous person or the descendant of a slave; whatever your relationship is, it’s extremely important that we explore it so that we can celebrate each other's experiences and fears and joys. That is the diversity that we’re working towards. It's celebrating people’s relationships to their land, their struggles, their histories, and their futures in it.”

The queer community is also vastly underrepresented both in media and on the trails. Tariq has come to appreciate the unique struggles of a community whose experience, while similar in some ways, is still very different from her own.

“By connecting and sharing with outdoors enthusiasts from the LGBTQ+ community, I’ve come to learn how incredibly privileged I am as a straight heterosexual cisgender female. It's been such a humbling and eye-opening experience for me to learn about how many queer couples fear for their safety when holding hands with their partners in the outdoors. I’m never going to have to struggle in that way and acknowledging that is my first step in being a better ally.”

This understanding that every person has something to offer as an ally is vital to furthering the conversation around and movement towards diversity in the outdoors.

“I think that the beginning of alliance is someone saying, “I’ve never had the experiences or faced the struggles you have and that makes me realize my own privileges,” says Tariq. “It brings me so much joy and emotional fulfillment when white allies reach out to me and say, ‘I never thought about it that way, but thank you for sharing because now I know something I didn't.’ That is acknowledgment on their part is critical. Through dialogue we are connecting and building empathy and that’s ultimately how we build community.”

The movement to bring awareness to the lack of diversity in the outdoors is amping up. There are numerous bodies dedicated to bridging the gap, from OUT There Adventures, a group encouraging queer youths to embrace the outdoors; to cultural outdoors advocacy organizations Outdoor Afro and Latino Outdoors; and Tariq’s own Brown People Camping.

Several high-profile organizations are joining the drive to diversify the outdoors. The National Park Service is assessing the diversity of visitors to its parks, and implementing programs and hiring practices in efforts to promote National Parks as valuable, accessible attractions for all groups of people.

REI and Patagonia are both making efforts to equally represent all walks of life in their outdoor programs and marketing campaigns. And the more visible minorities become—the more their stories are shared and heard by the majority—the more comfortable they will be in enjoying the outdoors.

“It's extremely important for people who are the majority in a space to talk about why diversity is important,’ Tariq says. “We all have a role to play. We all have to champion this. We do this by just being our authentic selves, engaging in those conversations, and making people feel welcome. We need believe other people’s stories when they tell us they have struggled or felt unsafe; we need to accept the fact that not everyone has equal footing to access the outdoors or feels safe in the outdoors. We need to listen, we need to share, and we need help empower everyone to be a part of our movement for progress and equity.”

 Ambreen Tariq was born in India, and moved to the United States when she was eight years old. Camping with her family ignited Tariq’s love of the outdoors, and she continues to travel and share her stories. Follow her project for diversity in the outdoors on Instagram @BrownPeopleCamping.