The outdoors, like any other social system we’ve built, runs on ideas of scarcity. Internalizing the narrative that there is not enough for everyone inherently makes BIPOC individuals compete against one another.
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Affinity spaces can be pure magic. Being in a space where your baseline safety requirements are met opens up your capacity for learning. Being in a community where you are not ‘the only one’ means the ability to physically relax and shift your energy towards having new experiences and building lifelong friendships.
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We are experts in our traditions, stories, and knowledge—including the racism we experience. No one is more equipped than us to tell our own stories.
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So no, voting isn’t as simple as flossing—not unless you are a white person whose existence is untouched by race, poverty, immigration or the prison industrial complex. What about the rest of us?
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I needed gear, and lots of it. I needed the right colors and styles and brands. These were the rules of how to interact with nature, and they were created by people who did not look like me. As a child trying to belong, I felt unsafe disrupting these patterns.
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Believing that BIPOC do not deserve the same access to nature as white communities is an environmental racism issue. Believing that BIPOC do deserve access to nature, but not in your backyard, is still racist.
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I grew up in an immigrant household, where my family worked hard to build a foundation for themselves that most US citizens never even had to think about.
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As I continue to be an advocate in the outdoors, I am now realizing that we have the power to create any kind of ski culture we want. But we can’t do this alone. In fact, we shouldn’t do it alone.
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Most of us agree that language matters, names matter. Agreeing on which ones best represent our communities is a different story; especially when the only constant seems to be change.
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Everyone should have access to wild foods and medicines, but not at the expense of Black, Indigenous people of color. So how can we uplift these communities instead of erasing them?
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As I have worked through decolonizing my own relationship with nature, I have learned that our obsession with summits is obsolete. In fact—it is problematic.
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My parents adopted the American Dream and encouraged assimilation as a way to survive and succeed in the United States. This meant growing up without raíces—roots to home.
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