Black faces, white spaces: Reimagining the relationship of African Americans to the great outdoors
Pro Pick!
Carolyn Finney describes the history of the environmental movement and the part race, representation, and rhetoric play. Media and policies tend to make outdoor activity and spaces seem like white people are the only ones recreating. She shares example after example of African Americans’ historical and current connection to the outdoors.
Finney, C. (2014). Black faces, white spaces: Reimagining the relationship of African Americans to the great outdoors. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Get this for your bookshelf, read it, and share it. It is a good read full of examples and lays out the history of the conservation movement and field of environmental education. These accounts support the point that many people engage in environmental education--though one could miss their engagement if it doesn’t fit in a definition or dominant culture of the field. Within the first few pages Finney tackles representation and goes on from there. I appreciate having a book devoted to the topic rather than reading multiple articles.