By Amy Kwasnicki, Pennsylvania Chapter Outing Co-chair
As a part of my household’s pandemic response, we have been doing monthly trips from Philadelphia to our beautiful regional state parks. With the turn in the weather, we have been grateful for the warm “modern cabins” -- our January trip was to Lake Nockamixon.
Part of our pod experience has included my kids taking turns inviting one friend to join us on these monthly trips. For our first trip of 2021, my daughter Z invited her friend M. Z and M have been friends since 3rd grade, when M joined our Girl Scout troop. They are now in 12th grade, which is just amazing to think about.
The week of our trip, a wonderful pile of snow was dumped on our area, and so Lake Nockamixon was a picturesque and perfect winter wonderland. The girls decided, as part of our snow adventuring, to check out the sledding in the day use area. We arrived to find a perfect sledding hill.
As much as I love sledding, I was more antsy for a hike in the woods, so once I saw Z and M do a few runs and everyone was feeling happy and confident, I excused myself to go on my hike, agreeing we’d meet back up at the car. I figured two 17 year olds would be safe sledding without my chaperoning.
An hour later and back at the car, I felt much better from my hike and the girls were glowing from the sledding. But as we debriefed, they also told me about an incident that I still can’t wrap my brain around.
As they stood at the top of the hill waiting for space to open for a sled down, Z and M realized there was a woman openly staring at M. M being the super friendly person that she is, smiled and waved. The woman did not respond with a smile, but instead pointedly readjusted her bright pink hat so that M could see its print -- “Women for Trump”.
To fill in some more detail, I am white, and so is Z. M is Jamaican-American, and currently has really long braids. As far as I was easily able to observe, both when I left the girls at the sledding hill and when I walked past it on my return, M was the only person of color on the slope.
I suspect some people reading this may think I am making too much out of a small gesture, that there is clearly plenty of room for misinterpretation, that the person was just readjusting their hat. I am not going to argue with all of those possibilities What I know is how I would feel if this happened to me, and what people of color, children of color, have shared with me -- that support for Trump is support for white supremacy, that a big Trump sign in a yard is threatening and scary, and that visiting rural areas where these signs seem more frequent is very unnerving. And I know that on the evening of the sledding, when we returned to the cabin, both of the girls asked me to make sure our cabin door was locked. I know not everyone who voted for Trump is also a racist and a bigot, but they are out there, in the counties that significantly voted for Trump, and where many of our state parks are located.
The good news is that M has been hiking, camping, biking and boating her whole life. She was born and raised in Philly, and as the only person in her family who engages in outdoor activities like these, is used to not having her affection for adventure understood by her immediate family, friends, and schoolmates. She has even done bike-camping and boat-camping and has backpacked on some of the Appalachian Trail. She is, unfortunately, used to being the only non-white person on a trail. And she is not about to let racism keep her from her love of the outdoors.
But isn’t it absurd that I now have this story to write? Can I ever feel okay about taking a walk nearby while the kids are doing something else, again? Can I tell M. and my daughter Z. that they will be safe in the outdoors of Pennsylvania? And beyond? What if I tell them everything will be okay, that ‘haters are gonna hate,’ and they can’t let them guide their lives…. And then they get attacked for going sledding? Even if it’s a verbal attack, think about how much that will unsettle them, how much this incident did?
Pennsylvania’s public lands are for everyone, and we all, every single one of us, have the right to enjoy those lands, and to be safe and welcomed by everyone else in the state when we recreate in these spaces.
I don’t know how, between school, religion, and common decency, there are people who do not understand that racism is evil, but it seems to be the case. All I can attest to is that this experience has reminded me that racism, hate, and probably xenophobia are alive and well in Pennsylvania’s state parks and surrounding areas. And the people of Pennsylvania must do something about that.
Want to discuss this more? Want to get involved to ensure that Pennsylvania’s outdoor spaces are safe & welcoming for all? Please join the monthly online Equity in the Outdoors discussion series. For more information and to sign up, visit the Pennsylvania Chapter's event calendar.
This blog was included as part of the Spring 2021 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!